Harry and Tess Potter: Year One
by RangerManaInSnuggieWar
Summary: A rewrite of my Harry and Sophie series, since I have unfinished business with it. No copied chapters except for the first one and no Mary Sues, unlike the original. Rated T for safety.
1. The Boy and Girl Who Lived

**Happy New Year! :D Ok, so I've been reading through my Harry and Sophie Potter series again, wishing I could make them better, when I was hit with an idea; why don't I retry? I think the problem with my old series was lack of planning, so there were plot holes, retcons and Mary Sues everywhere. **

**This is a rewritten version with a few differences that you'll see as the story progresses. I should be able to get out a chapter a week and if not, I'll post an A/N that I'll delete with the posting of the new chapter.**

**And about Harry and Olivia…I don't feel a connection to that, partly because I have ghosts with this story that haven't been laid to rest. Whenever I think of Liv, I think of Sophie/Tess, and Sophia just reminds me of Bo. I might get around to finishing it but I'm not positive - it really depends on how I feel after this.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it.**

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache.

Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours.

The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.

The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son and daughter, too, but they had never even seen them. This boy and girl was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with children like that.

When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.

Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.

"Little tyke," chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realise what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.

Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, _looking _at the sign; cats couldn't read maps _or _signs.

Mr Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town, he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day. But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else.

As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely-dressed people about. People in cloaks.

Mr Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him!

But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt — these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.

Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. _He _didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time.

Mr Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.

He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —"

"— yes, their son, Harry, and their daughter, Tessa —"

Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking…no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry and a daughter called Tessa.

Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his niece and nephew _were _called Harry and Tessa. He'd never even seen the boy and girl. The boy's name might have been Harvey. Or Harold. And the girl's name could have been Teresa, or Tiffany.

There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if _he'd _had a sister like that…but all the same, those people in cloaks…

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"

And the old man hugged Mr Dursley around the middle and walked off. Mr Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw — and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Shoo!" said Mr Dursley loudly.

The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.

Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). Mr Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"_And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." _The newscaster allowed himself a grin._ "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"_

"_Well, Ted," _said the weatherman,_ "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."_

Mr Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…

Mrs Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Mr Dursley mumbled. "Owls…shooting stars…and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"

"So?" snapped Mrs Dursley.

"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… _her _crowd."

Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son and daughter — they'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't they?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs Dursley stiffly.

"What're their names again? Thea and Howard, aren't they?"

"Harry and Tessa. Nasty, common names, if you ask me."

"Oh, yes," said Mr Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."

He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.

The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters _were _involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind…he couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect _them_…

How very wrong he was.

Mr Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.

He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."

She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls…shooting stars…Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really _has _gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A _what_?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who _has _gone —"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: _Voldemort_."

Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."

"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, _Voldemort_, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too — well —_noble _to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the _rumours _that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever everyone was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.

"What they're _saying_," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — _dead_."

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know…I know…" he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potters' son and daughter, Harry and Tessa. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy and girl. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry and Tessa Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"It's — it's _true_?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy and girl? It's just astounding…of all the things to stop him…but how in the name of heaven did Harry and Tessa survive?"

"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me _why _you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry and Tessa to their aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now."

"You don't mean – you _can't _mean the people who live _here_?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry and Tessa Potter come and live here!"

"It's the best place for them," said Dumbledore firmly. "Their aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to them when they're older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand them! They'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry and Tessa Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry and Heather — every child in our world will know their name!"

"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy and girl's heads. Famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! Can you see how much better off they'll be, growing up away from all that until they're ready to take it?"

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how are the boy and girl getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry and Tessa underneath it.

"Hagrid's bringing them."

"You think it —_wise _— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so _wild _— long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me.

I've got 'em, sir."

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got 'em out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. Harry fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol an' Tess followed not long after."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep, with a baby girl, who was stirring. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over the boy's forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. On the side of the girl's head, going from her right temple to her cheekbone, was an identical scar, partly covered by her wispy, dark red hair.

"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "They'll have those scars forever."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well — give them here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry and Tessa in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.

"Could I — could I say good-bye to 'em, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss and then repeated the action with Tessa. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry an' Tessie off ter live with Muggles —"

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry and Tessa gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside their blankets, and then came back to the other two.

For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry and Tessa," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up and one arm fell across his sleeping sister. One small hand closed on the letter beside Tessa and she and Harry slept on, not knowing they were special, not knowing they were famous, not knowing they would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that they would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by their cousin Dudley…

They couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry and Tessa Potter — the boy and girl who lived!"

**This chapter is virtually the only word-for-word one (apart from Diagon Alley, which I can't stand and will leave in as word-for-word) and the next one will be the same as my original Harry and Sophie Potter one.**

**And updates won't be very frequent, since I have a job at Woolworths (Safeway, Wal-Mart, whichever you use) and I'm hammered! Oh, and I'm trying to teach myself Greek off the Internet, which is actually harder than it sounds XD So far, I have the numbers 1-10 off by heart and I have to read over the rest of the info to memorise it XD**


	2. Ha! Take that, Dudley!

**Just a note, Tess's personality is the same in this chapter as Sophie's but I'll actually be sticking with it and not dumping her name in place of Harry's. I know that Sophie was arrogant but it technically wasn't a flaw, since it was never addressed by the characters (or else Bella Stephenie Meyer-Swan wouldn't be a Mary Sue).**

**Thanks so much to flowers-and-rainbows-123, Ali, Cookie05 and Chibi-Chic - you guys rock! :D**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own.**

"Up! Get up, now!" A shrill voice cut into my dream and I groaned and rolled over, banging my head on the door. Swearing softly, I shook my twin brother and pulled a brush off a shelf.

"Wha?" he murmured sleepily, reaching for his glasses.

"Up!" our aunt's voice screeched again, making me wince. Harry groaned and sat up, while I struggled with a knot in my hair.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing," Harry called back. I smirked as I pulled on my favourite grey blouse - it was the least ugly out of all my clothes and considering how ugly the blouse was, that was saying something.

"Technically, you did just say something," I said to Harry. He rolled his eyes and pulled a spider off his socks.

"Well, come on, I want you to look after the bacon! And don't let it burn, I want everything perfect on my Dudley's special day!"

This time it was my turn to moan. For some reason, our cousin Dudley was even more unpleasant to me than to Harry - probably because I was a girl, which meant he wasn't allowed to hit me, and I was smarter than everyone, excluding Harry, in the street. Well, I was smarter than my brother. I may come across as arrogant but it was the truth.

We opened the door of our cupboard and walked to the kitchen, where our uncle and cousin were waiting. Harry walked over to tend to the bacon, while I pulled out some eggs and another frying pan.

"Comb your hair!" Uncle Vernon barked at Harry and I smirked to myself. No way was a comb going to make my brother's hair lie flat!

As I fried the eggs, I wondered how in the world we were going to eat! The table had nearly collapsed under the weight of all of Dudley's birthday presents.

Harry and I were twins and the only two different things about us were our hair and genders - Harry had messy black hair, while I had long, curly dark red hair. We both had brilliant green eyes, pale skin, skinny bodies and lightning bolt scars. Harry's was on his forehead while mine started at my left temple and ended at my cheekbone - I used my fringe to hide it.

Harry and I had been told that our mum and dad had been killed in a car crash but I didn't believe this. For one thing, Aunt Petunia hated questions, so I was inclined to believe that she knew things that she didn't want us to know. Even Harry got this feeling at times but didn't bother with it - our aunt would never tell them anything anyway so, as he says, why bother about it?

For another, strange things kept happening to me and Harry, although we didn't know how these things happened. For instance, Aunt Petunia had grown tired of Harry's hair one night after he'd come home after a haircut looking as if he hadn't had one, and chopped it all off. I had spent all night comforting a worrying Harry as he had been scared of what the others would say at school. The next morning, however, his hair was exactly the same as the day before.

And I also had a strange affinity with snakes; at seven, I had been gardening and had come across a snake but before it could bite me, I told it to stop. We became good friends, until Aunt Petunia brained him with a shovel and nearly did the same to me - I still had the small scar near my hairline. I hadn't wanted to get attached to another snake, until Zora, an adder, came along. We were the best of friends and even Harry joined our conversations sometimes - he too could talk to them.

So far, the weirdest thing that had happened was when we were being chased by Dudley's gang. I had been quick enough to duck behind a building but my brother wasn't so lucky. He had jumped to hide behind the bins outside the kitchen doors, but had ended up on the roof. He had been punished severely for this and I was still wondering how he did that.

Harry and I put the plates of egg and bacon onto the table (where they could) and sat down to eat. Dudley was counting his presents and I, having counted them beforehand and knowing what was coming, began eating faster. Harry gave me a questioning glance and I raised an eyebrow - he knew there was a good reason for stuffing myself like a pig.

"Thirty seven, that's two less than last year," Dudley said, his face growing red. The look on Harry's face showed he understood and he started wolfing down his bacon.

Aunt Petunia obviously sensed the danger, because she added hurriedly "And you'll get another two when we go out today, ok popkin?" Dudley's face screwed up and I smirked.

"So I'll have thirty…thirty…"

"Thirty nine," I said, cutting a piece of egg.

"I feel stupid," Dudley said sadly. Harry and I exchanged smirks.

"Girl, how dare you make my Duddykins feel stupid!" Aunt Petunia scolded, making me roll my eyes. Honestly, she acted like Dudley was some sort of a god or something! I quickly took my plate to the sink and made a run for the cupboard, only to be stopped by Aunt Petunia.

"You aren't going anywhere!" she said and I shrugged nonchalantly, though I groaned on the inside. Aunt Petunia walked out of the room to take a call and came back in two minutes later, looking worried.

"Bad news, Vernon, Mrs Figg's broken her leg and she can't take them," she said, pointing at me and Harry. Dudley's mouth fell open but my brother and I grinned at each other. Every year, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon took Dudley out for his birthday and left us at a batty old woman called Mrs Figg's house. She made us look at pictures of all the cats she'd ever known and even I, who didn't mind cats at all, hated it.

"We could phone Marge."

"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates them!"

"What about what's-her-name, Yvonne?"

"On holiday in Majorca."

"You could just leave us here," Harry suggested and I snorted.

'_Tactful,'_ I thought.

'_Yeah, well,'_ he thought back. The two of us had a telepathic link and we loved it - we could insult the Dursleys all we wanted and they would be none the wiser.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" Aunt Petunia looked as if she had swallowed a lemon and I grinned to myself.

"We won't blow up the house…" Harry tried to reason but Aunt Petunia wasn't listening.

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo…and leave them in the car…"

"The car's new Petunia, I'm not leaving them in it!" Dudley then began to fake cry, wailing and covering his face in his mother's body.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" Aunt Petunia reassured and he sent a smug look at me and Harry.

"I…don't…want…them…t-t-to come!" he howled. "They always spoil everything!" He was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" Aunt Petunia said frantically. In walked a rat-faced boy, Piers Polkiss. He was Dudley's best friend and he was usually a prime suspect in Dudley's bullying, as well as always pulling my ponytail, which I absolutely hated. Dudley stopped fake crying at once.

'_Of course, he won't cry in front of his best friend!'_ I thought smugly. Harry laughed telepathically.

Half an hour later, Harry and I were sitting in the car, not believing our luck.

"I'm warning you now, brats," Uncle Vernon had hissed, pulling us aside before the trip. "Mess up and you'll be in that cupboard until Christmas!"

"_Can I come to this 'zoo', as you call it?" _Zora asked while we were waiting for Dudley and Piers to leave the house. Looking around, I shrugged.

"_Why not?" _Hissing happily, Zora slithered up my arm and settled in my collar, out of sight.

"If Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon see her, you know they'll kill Zora too, right?" Harry said.

"Let them try," I said darkly. "Unlike Mikey, Zora is poisonous." I could've sworn that I saw Zora smirk at that.

Uncle Vernon loved complaining about things. People at work, Harry, the bank, me, Harry, the council, Harry, the post office and me were some of his favourite subjects. Today, it was motorbikes.

"Roaring along the highway like maniacs, young hoodlums," he complained.

"I had a dream about a motorbike," Harry said. "It was flying." I made a cutting-throat gesture, accidentally hitting Zora and waking her up, and Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front of us.

"MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!" he roared, spraying them with spit.

"We know, it was only a dream," I murmured. The Dursleys seemed to think that we would get dangerous ideas, which was ridiculous! Actually, no it wasn't…

At the zoo, Dudley and Piers were bought large chocolate ice creams and Harry and I got lemon ice lollies, only because the smiling lady had asked what we had wanted before we could be ushered away.

'_Look, there's Dudley!'_ Harry thought, nodding to a large gorilla which was scratching its head_. 'Only it's not blond!'_

Outwardly, I snorted at my brother's thoughts but inside, I was in hysterics; he really did have the most interesting way of thinking! We eventually visited the reptile room, which Zora was pretty happy about, and Dudley easily found the largest snake there.

"Make it move!" he whined to his dad, who tapped the glass. Nothing.

"Boring!" He walked off with Piers, leaving me, Harry and Zora with the snake. The snake looked at us and winked.

"_Hi, there," _I said. _"What's your name?"_

"_Al," _the snake said back. _"I have not ever spoken to a human before. Who are you?"_

"_I'm Tess Potter and this is my twin brother, Harry, and our friend, Zora." _Zora hissed a greeting at Al, who hissed back.

"_I get that all the time!" _Al said, looking behind us at Dudley tapping on another enclosure.

_"Yeah, it must be really annoying,"_ I murmured to Al and he nodded.

_"So, where are you from?"_ Harry asked. I rolled my eyes and nodded towards a sign that Al's tail jabbed at, which read _Boa Constrictor, Brazil. This snake was bred in the zoo._

_"So, you've never been to Brazil?"_ I asked sadly and Al shook his head.

"Dudley! Mr Dursley! Come over here, you won't believe what this snake is doing!" Piers shrieked and Dudley pushed us out of the way. As we fell onto the concrete ground, my anger flared up and so did Harry's. Zora nearly revealed herself but stopped at the last minute and resigned herself to hissing swear words angrily, half of which she picked up from Uncle Vernon.

"Argh!" Dudley shouted - the glass had vanished! Al slithered out and snapped playfully at the heels of visitors.

_"Brazil, here I come…thanksss, amigos!"_ he hissed. Back in the car, after some hysterical ranting, Piers admitted that Harry and I had been talking to Al and I flinched. When Piers had left, Uncle Vernon collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to get a large brandy.

"Go…cupboard…stay…no meals!" he gasped and I quickly left the room - the quieter he was, the more dangerous he was.

"We're going to have to sneak food again, Tessie," Harry murmured to me when we were in our cupboard and I nodded my agreement, wishing Zora was with me - she'd left before we'd come inside. Harry started trying to remember our parents' deaths but all he could remember was a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.

"Harry, don't think about it," I murmured finally and he sighed and nodded. We had always thought wistfully of some unknown relation that would come and take us away but we knew that our aunt and uncle were our only surviving relatives, apart from Dudley.

A man in a violet top hat had bowed to us once in a shop, a wild-looking woman dressed in green had waved to us on a bus and a bald man in a long purple coat had actually shaken our hands in the street. They all seemed to vanish whenever Harry and I tried to get a better look at them and I was still pondering this even now.

At school, we only had each other. Everyone knew that Dudley and his gang hated the weird Potter twins and no one wanted to disagree with Dudley's gang if they wanted to live.

**I think the reason why my other story sucked was because I listened to the fans and tried to please them too hard (like with the OCs and all). **


	3. The Life of Lily Marie Evans

**Ok, last name and appearance change, I swear. I've just been cruising through Fanfiction, looking at Harry and twin sister stories, and I noticed a few names crop up a hell of a lot: Amy, Rose and Heather, to name a few. I really didn't want to use an overused name so I changed it - as far as I know, there hasn't been a story with a Tess Potter before. Besides, all these H's (Harry, Heather, Hermione, Hagrid) really get a little confusing. And the whole 'naming Harry's twin after a flower' really gets old.**

**I've also removed the previous A/N about the name change, so as not to confuse any newcomers. I seriously swear it'll be my last name change - I'm just a fickle person and my likes change all the time. Seriously, one minute my fave colour is red, the next it's blue and then it's purple. I can't decide.**

**Disclaimer: Seriously? I still don't own it.**

After the boa constrictor incident at the zoo, Harry and I had earned our longest ever punishment - a whole month in our cupboard, a whack around the head and a few more slaps. It wasn't the first time our aunt and uncle had ever laid their hands on us but it was the first time I'd come close to breaking a bone - as it was, I'd had to be extra careful with my right arm for a week afterwards.

By the time Aunt Petunia finally let us out of our cupboard for something other than school or chores, we were a week into the school holidays and Dudley had already broken half his toys and not touched the other half. He'd even knocked Mrs Figg down while on his bike and the poor old lady had a broken leg from tripping on a cat!

_Whoever left us with our relatives has a seriously sick sense of humour, _I thought as I cooked lunch with Harry.

Harry and I mostly spent our time outside, trying to keep away from Dudley and his gang, whose favourite game was 'Harry and Tess hunting'. Even though Aunt Petunia had told Dudley never to hit girls, she had made an exception in my case, something I wanted nothing more than to punch her head in for.

…Yeah, I need to get over my violent tendencies.

At least come September, Dudley and Piers would be going to Uncle Vernon's old school, Smeltings (the name didn't really endear me), while Harry and I would be going to a local public school, Stonewall High. We were happy that we'd be getting away from our cousin but he took great joy in teasing us about it - apparently, it was all a massive joke.

"They like shoving the heads of new people down the toilet there!" he crowed. "Want to come and practice, Tessie?"

"No thanks," I smiled sweetly. "I wouldn't want to make the poor toilet sick with your head in it, would I?" I bolted before he could figure out exactly what I said.

I just wished he wouldn't call me Tessie - to me, only Harry was allowed to call me that. To everyone else, I was Tess, except to my aunt and uncle - they used my full name, Tessa (when they could actually remember it, that is).

One day in mid-July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy him his Smeltings uniform and left me and Harry with Mrs Figg. She actually wasn't as bad as usual - she let us watch TV and gave us some cake, though I was seriously concerned over the age of said cake.

That evening, Aunt Petunia called a fashion show in the kitchen so that Dudley could parade around in his absolutely ridiculous uniform - a straw boater, maroon coat and orange knickerbockers. While our aunt and uncle cooed over how handsome their 'Ickle Duddykins' looked, Harry and I were under the table, trying not to laugh, and we eventually had to run for our cupboard.

"I think…I broke…a rib," I wheezed when we shut the door. Harry was laughing too hard to answer.

The next morning, Harry and I were greeted by a horrible smell in the kitchen when we opened the door. We managed to pinpoint it to a large grey tub in the sink which, when we looked in it, we saw had a bunch of grey rags floating in grey water.

"What the heck is this?" I muttered, blocking my nose. Aunt Petunia shot me a nasty look and said, "Your new uniforms - I'm dying some of Dudley's old things grey for you, not that you deserve even them. You'll look just like everyone else. And watch your language, girl!"

I seriously doubted that Harry and I wouldn't stick out but chose to sit down instead and pull a piece of toast towards me, making sure to stick my tongue out at our aunt when her back was turned. Harry choked on a piece of toast and Aunt Petunia shot him a dirty look.

Dudley and Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen soon after we did, their noses wrinkled at the smell coming from our uniforms. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper and disappeared into his own little world (which I really hoped I never got to experience), while Dudley banged his new stick around. Part of the Smeltings uniform was a knobbly stick, which was apparently meant to help later in life. Well, if you're teaching your kids how to be a delinquent, that is.

Uncle Vernon didn't even look up when he heard the mail; instead, he said, "Dudley, go get the mail."

"Make Harry or Tessie do it!"

"Harry, Tessa, go get the mail."

"Make Dudley do it," we chorused in unison.

"Hit them with your stick, Dudley."

Harry dodged the stick but I wasn't so lucky and got a painful poke in the ribs for my trouble. Scowling, I rubbed them and followed Harry into the hall, where he picked up the mail and went through it.

"Bill…bill…postcard from Aunt Marge…letter for me…letter for Tess…"

"Wait a minute! Back up!" I said and Harry froze. He pulled out two heavy, yellowish envelopes with the addresses written in green ink and handed one to me. The address read:

_Miss T. Potter_

_The Cupboard Under the Stairs_

_4 Privet Drive_

_Little Whinging_

_Surrey_

"Harry? I think we have a stalker," I said weakly, wondering who in the world would be writing to us and how they could know where they slept. I would've thought it was the library demanding books back but Harry had one too and he never usually went into the library.

"…They know where we sleep," Harry murmured, his eyes wide. "Come on, Tess." He made his way back to the kitchen but I reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Harry! If we take these into the kitchen, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia will take them for sure!" I said.

"You're right, Tessie," Harry said. "Let's hide them in our cupboard." Harry and I stashed our letters under our pillow and took the others into the kitchen. After handing them to our uncle, we made a beeline for our cupboard.

My hands were shaking as I picked up my letter and turned it over to see a strange purple seal with a lion, badger, eagle and snake on it, surrounding a large letter 'H'.

"Ready?" Harry said quietly. I nodded and we opened our letters together and started to read. Mine read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International_

_Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Miss Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Questions exploded in my head when I'd finished reading but the first thing I said was, "This _has _to be a joke."

"Not really…" Harry said thoughtfully and I shot him a strange look. "Remember all those times we made weird things happen?"

Thinking back, I realised Harry was right. We could talk to snakes; we turned our teacher's hair blue once; that whole hair-growing thing after it had been cut; and when we'd been chased by Dudley's gang, Harry managing to somehow get to the roof.

"Magic is real!" I whispered. "But why would our aunt and uncle keep it from us?"

"Maybe that's why they hate us," Harry laughed humourlessly. "Come on, Tess, you know how much they like normalcy."

"Good point," I acknowledged and then I grew sad. "But we can't go. Our aunt and uncle are more likely to dance the tango naked out in the street in front of the neighbours than buy us magical supplies with their own money." Harry snickered mentally at the image. "And that's not even counting actually getting us to the school."

"You're right," Harry sighed. "I guess we should write back and tell them we can't come. I wonder if there are any witches and wizards in the post office?"

"Probably," I said. "How else would people like us contact them? We don't exactly have an owl, in case you haven't noticed."

While Harry set out to find a paper, envelope and pen, I snuck out to steal some change for the postage. Did I feel bad? Nope. It's not like they give us anything other than cast-offs and lower than the bare minimum of food anyway.

When we met back up at our cupboard, I took the pen and a book to lean on, because I had better handwriting out of the two of us, and composed the letter:

_Dear Professor McGonagall,_

_We're really sorry but we can't come to Hogwarts. As much as we'd love to come, our aunt and uncle would never buy us supplies and take us to the school._

_From Harry and Tess Potter_

Short but to the point.

It was with a heavy heart that Harry and I sent off the letter that afternoon and even Dudley seemed to pick up on our mood because he became more vicious.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I despise our relatives?" I muttered that night, holding a stolen pack of frozen peas to my eye. Of course, when Aunt Petunia found out that we'd been 'stealing', we earned another slap.

"About a billion times, Tessie," Harry replied and he put his arm around me. I snuggled closer, relishing the closeness we had, and we fell asleep like that.

The next day, of course, wasn't as great.

"Where are they?" Aunt Petunia screeched as soon as we left our cupboard.

"Where's what?" I murmured sleepily.

"Your letters! I know you have them! Where are they?" My eyes widened and I managed to duck her arm but Harry wasn't so lucky and got clobbered as he was climbing out of the cupboard. He fell back in, swearing under his breath.

"It doesn't matter!" I said. "We already wrote back and said we couldn't go!"

"You contacted them? You stupid girl!" our aunt screeched and after a few more hits, banished me outside to work on the garden, while she tortured my brother inside. Hours later, a thought occurred to me.

"_How could she have known about our letters?" _I hissed to Zora, spreading fertiliser around. _"She was waiting for us this morning and she looked frightened - almost as if we'd found out something we shouldn't have."_

"_Maybe your mother was a 'witch', as the letter says," _Zora replied. _"How else could she know about magic unless your mother was magical herself?"_

"_But why wouldn't our aunt be?" _I wondered thoughtfully.

After the garden, I was conscripted to clearing the attic and when Aunt Petunia called me down to cook dinner, I spied a small box. Curiously, I picked it up and was about to open it when Aunt Petunia screeched, "GET DOWN HERE, GIRL!"

"COMING!" I yelled back and made a quick trip to the cupboard to deposit the box, noting sadly that our letters were gone, and made my way to the kitchen, where Harry was already cooking. I slid a few portions of meat from my measly serving to Zora, who vehemently refused and ordered me to eat.

"_You don't get enough as it is!" _she protested. _"I can hunt my own food!"_

After dinner, I pulled Harry to our cupboard and locked the door as soon as we were inside.

"What's this about?" he asked. In reply, I grabbed the small wooden box and showed him the words carved into the top: _Property of Lily Marie Evans_.

"You don't think -?"

"Yeah! I think this was our mum's!" I said, feeling a wave of warmth wash over me at touching something that had potentially been our mother's.

"Lily Evans," Harry said quietly, testing the words out before breaking into a big smile.

"And it makes sense, considering that my middle name is Lily," I added. We had learnt our middle names at school one day and had been surprised that we even had middle names, let alone first names - we thought our names were Freak, Boy and Girl before we started school.

"Then our dad's name was James," Harry said. "James Potter."

"Lily Evans and James Potter," I sighed dreamily, imagining what our parents had looked like. For some reason, whenever we did this, the two of us always thought of a man who looked exactly like Harry but with hazel eyes and a woman that could have passed for my twin. Maybe it was an early memory or something.

When we finally opened the box, the first thing we saw was photos and some of them were _moving_. Astonished, we picked up the photos and started looking through them.

"'Me and Sev before our first year at Hogwarts, 1971'," Harry whispered, looking at a photo of a redheaded girl who looked exactly like me and a black-haired boy. They were smiling but weren't moving and Mum looked so happy that I felt my heart breaking again at not knowing her.

While Harry continued to go through the photos, I picked up a small green book that said _Diary of Lily Marie Evans _on the front.

_Mum's diary! _I thought and I opened it and began to read hungrily.

At two in the morning, Harry was sound asleep and I'd half-finished Mum's diary - I was up to her fifth year at Hogwarts. From what I read, she absolutely despised our father and his band of friends and her friendship with this Severus Snape was starting to dissolve. I felt sad about that but, reading from her point of view, I could understand.

Smiling softly, I marked my page, packed everything away and carefully hid it so that our aunt and uncle wouldn't stumble on it if they decided to pay us a visit.

The next day, after our chores had been done, Harry and I escaped to the park with our mother's box and we continued going through it. I reopened the diary and continued to read. By the time we had to return, I'd nearly finished and I saw how Dad had matured and Mum had started to fall for him. I also wanted to find this Severus Snape and ask him about our mother but knew that I had a fat chance of ever doing that.

Once back in our cupboard, we continued our activities until Harry let out a small gasp.

"What is it?" I asked, putting Mum's diary aside. I saw him staring at a photo and my heart clenched when I saw it.

Mum and Dad were on the couch, laughing, and occasionally looking down at two babies between them. One had black hair and the other had longer, dark red hair but they both had shining emerald green eyes. The babies were looking at each other and poking each other curiously before laughing.

"Hi, Mum," I whispered. "Hi, Dad." The picture versions of our parents looked at us and waved merrily and though I didn't think they could actually see us, being photo people, I thought they could at least sense us.

"That's us," Harry said in a strangled voice and I knew instantly that he, like me, was trying to hold back tears. Turning the picture over, we saw that it was dated September 7th, 1981.

'_And how much longer after that did it all fall apart?' _Harry wondered sadly and I squeezed him.

'_One thing doesn't add up,' _I thought. _'If they loved us so much, why would they go drink driving? Surely they wouldn't have done something so dumb!'_

'_Maybe our aunt and uncle are lying to us,' _Harry replied. _'I wouldn't put it past them.'_

'_That's what I've thought for years.'_

In a few hours, we had our answer. The diary started to grow more serious and described how the Dark Lord, Voldemort, had decided to target me and Harry for some reason and we'd had to go into hiding. The diary abruptly stopped at 31st October, 1981, saying how Mum had a bad feeling about that day, and we could only assume that they'd been killed on that day.

'_So they were murdered,' _Harry thought and I burst into tears, hugging the diary close to me. Harry gave me a strong hug and suddenly, I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and a voice say, "It's ok, Tessie, Mummy's here." Harry and I turned at the same time but there was nothing there.

"Did you hear that?" I mumbled thickly and Harry nodded. "I - someone touched me and then I heard a voice talk to me!"

"Maybe it was Mum," Harry whispered. "That's what the voice said to me."

"Maybe…" I murmured.

**If you're wondering about the physical abuse, in PS, Vernon clearly says that they tried to 'beat it out of Harry'. Now, if that doesn't hint at hitting, I don't know what does. And also, every parent gives their child a smack or two when they're naughty - I wouldn't put it past the Dursleys to twist that to suit their purposes.**

**And I'm thinking of having Harry and Tess not forgive Ron in GoF and so they don't become friends again. Because seriously, Ron had just stabbed Harry in the back and Harry forgave him so easily, so I'm going to exploit what would happen if he didn't. Besides, I'm not the biggest fan of Ron anyway.**


	4. A trip with the biggest man in the world

**Thanks to my reviewers! Fast update only because I needed something to take my mind off the blood test I had yesterday…I have a phobia of needles *whimpers*. But apart from now, I'm going to stick to the usual weekly routine.**

**Cookie05:**** Yeah, I swear I'll keep the name Tess. I just grew out of love with Courtney and didn't want to use an overused name such as Heather. So I settled on Tess. Besides, it'd take ages now to go back and edit everything to change her name again and I've drawn a picture of her and everything ;)**

**Chibi-Chic:**** You make a good point but the abandonment in DH was just too far - he had no excuse then and I argue that the locket amplified what he was feeling, it didn't create any feelings. I can't force myself to like him, so as a compromise, he'll still be friends with Harry and Tess, he just won't be in their group - you know, a 'Ginny-esque' character (she was friends (of sorts) with Harry but wasn't a part of the trio).**

**Seeing Spirits:**** For your information, Violet and I are now friends. However, if I must justify myself to you, your answer will be at the bottom - I'm not holding up everyone else for you. I was actually pretty sick that day and I MIGHT have a not-so-harmless illness (not to diagnose myself or anything). And also, if you want me to respond next time, actually log in so that I can PM you - for that reason, I'm ignoring your second review and any others you might write while not logged in.**

**Disclaimer: I own that sad little scene last chapter and Tess but nothing else**

At the end of July, my mood was lower than it had ever been. For one, Harry and I were turning eleven on the thirty first but it wasn't as if the Dursleys would actually remember, and the cut-off date for Hogwarts was on our birthday too. Once that was gone, the magical world would be lost to us for good and we'd be at the mercy of the Dursleys until we were eighteen.

Harry and I had finished going through Mum's box and I'd found a pretty green headband that used to belong to Mum. It had a lily on it that actually looked and felt real and I'd taken to wearing it whenever I wasn't around the Dursleys, otherwise they would have taken it. I also found a gorgeous charm bracelet with a weird pot that I assumed was a cauldron (I have read fairy tales, you know), a castle, a heart, an owl, a pumpkin, a lily and a train. I wondered what half of them meant (like the train) but I treasured the bracelet all the same.

Harry looked a little depressed that I had a headband and bracelet but he had nothing from Mum, until I teasingly offered him the bracelet. He cracked a grin and cheered up after that, though I felt a little sad that I had all these pretty things of Mum's and he had nothing but that changed when we dug deeper into the box.

I was sure that the box couldn't possibly hold all of this, until I remembered that magic actually existed, and I dug out a small chain with a broomstick on it. Attached to it was a small note that read, _Harry's first birthday present. I don't think he likes it very much, though, but Tessie-bean seems to love it - couldn't keep her hands off it!_

My brother's eyes filled with tears and he turned around wordlessly and let me clasp it around his neck. I was sure it would be too small - after all, he'd grown ten years since then - but it seemed to enlarge itself to fit, making me even sadder that we'd never get the chance to learn how to do that.

The next day, Harry and I wished each other happy birthday and exchanged our traditional cards - since no one else felt like getting us anything or even remembering, we gave each other cards every year. The only present we'd ever had was an old coat hanger and a foul pair of socks each that used to belong to our uncle - I threw mine out as soon as I could.

Just as we were dressed and ready to do our chores, there was a knock on the door and our aunt went to answer it. Harry and I hung back, watching curiously.

"Good morning, Mrs Dursley," a crisp voice said. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts."

Harry and I exchanged astonished looks and our aunt squawked, "You! You're freaks! Get out of here!"

"Mrs Dursley, you are attracting unwanted attention," Professor McGonagall said and I stifled a grin when Aunt Petunia looked around feverishly and then held the door open wider. A woman with grey hair in a tight bun entered, followed by a giant of a man. Harry and I gaped at him as he entered, accidentally broke the door and then grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said. Professor McGonagall's lips twitched and she waved a stick at the door, making it repair itself. Harry's and my mouths fell open.

'_Magic!' _we thought.

"Harry and Tessa Potter?" Professor McGonagall said, looking at us. We nodded and all I could say was, "I'm Tess."

Professor McGonagall smiled. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall."

"An' I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts," the giant man said. "Call me Hagrid. Yeh two know about Hogwarts, o' course?"

"N-Not really," I stammered, seeing our aunt fix us with a beady look. "I mean, we did find Mum's diary…"

"What? You've been snooping? You brat!" Aunt Petunia dived at us but with a wave of Professor McGonagall's stick (that Harry and I realised was a wand), our aunt was frozen.

"Cool!" we said together.

"You'll be able to do that and much more at Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said with a small smile.

"But - didn't you get our letter?" Harry said.

"That's why we're 'ere, Harry," Hagrid said, his face crinkling into a smile. "Yeh two look so much like yer mum an' dad…except fer the eyes, Harry. Yeh have yer mum's eyes. Yeh too, Tessie." For some reason, I didn't mind Hagrid calling me Tessie - in fact, it made me feel complete, like any other name wouldn't have been acceptable from him.

"W-We know," I said. "We found a box in the attic with photos…" I turned to fetch the box and the two adults smiled sadly at it, while our aunt's eyes bulged.

"I shall release you, Mrs Dursley, and you shall take us into the living room," Professor McGonagall said, waving her wand, and Aunt Petunia got up, glaring at her balefully.

"You shouldn't have written back to them!" she yelled at me.

"Had Harry and Tess not written back, we would have kept on sending letters," Professor McGonagall said. "You are lucky they did reply." After putting the box back, we all went into the living room, where Uncle Vernon and Dudley were sitting. When he saw us, our uncle's eyes popped.

"WHAT ARE THOSE FREAKS DOING HERE?" he shouted.

"Mr Dursley, please be quiet!" Professor McGonagall said and pointed her wand at him when he went to get up. Dudley was staring at us, his eyes wide with fear.

"Now, can't we all talk like civilised people?" Professor McGonagall said. On the outside, Harry and I were calm but on the inside, we were laughing hysterically at her comment. She then turned to us but before she could say anythin, Hagrid spoke.

"Happy birthday, Harry an' Tessie! Got a little summat fer yeh." Out of one of the pockets of his giant coat, he pulled out a white box and handed it to me and Harry. We opened it to see a large chocolate cake with green icing and, in pink letters, _Happy Birthday Harry and Tessie! _

"T-Thank you," I said quietly. No one had ever made us a cake before! Hagrid beamed at us and, not wanting to be rude, I ran to get a knife and Harry and I tried a little of the cake. It was the best thing I'd ever tasted! Dudley watched with jealous eyes and I smirked at him and exaggerated eating the last bite of my slice.

"That was delicious!" Harry said, making Hagrid beam even brighter.

"Down to business," Professor McGonagall said. "Hagrid and I have come to escort you to Diagon Alley, where you will be able to purchase your school supplies -"

"They're not going!" Uncle Vernon hissed. "They even said so themselves!"

"Because you'd never have paid for our stuff and taken us to school!" I retorted.

"Too right! Why would we waste a cent on you two brats?" When Professor McGonagall gave us a look, we launched into the tale of what our life with the Dursleys had been like. When we'd finished, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid looked furious.

"You made them sleep in a _cupboard?" _Professor McGonagall hissed furiously. "Why, of all the things I've heard…"

"I can't believe it!" Hagrid roared. "They're yer niece an' nephew an' yeh treat 'em like scum!"

"Because they are!" Uncle Vernon roared and, furiously, Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at him and he flinched back fearfully. I flinched; we'd long since stopped caring about what the Dursleys thought of us but it still hurt to hear him call us scum.

"When we return, you will give Harry and Tess a room of their own," Professor McGonagall said in a deadly voice. "Or I will turn you all into mice." Our pale aunt nodded.

"Do you two have your letters?" Professor McGonagall asked and Harry and I shook our heads.

"Our aunt and uncle kind of destroyed them when they found out that we had them," Harry admitted. Professor McGonagall's lips thinned.

"Fortunately, I have two letters right here," she said and she pulled them out of a pocket and handed them to us. "They have a list of everything you will need."

Harry and I took our letters and slit them open. We ignored the acceptance letter and instead pulled our list of supplies out. I read through all the books and equipment we needed and my stomach clenched excitedly at the wand part, though the books had me pretty excited too. When I looked up, I asked, "Do you just have to get the books here or are you allowed to buy more to read?" Professor McGonagall looked pleased at my question.

"Of course you can buy more," she said. "It depends on the funds you have. Of course, your mother and father left you two a lot of money so you won't be hard-done by -"

"We demand compensation for harbouring Harry and Tessa for ten years!" Uncle Vernon said, a greedy light in his eyes. Professor McGonagall ignored him and Hagrid shot him a deadly look.

"- so you will be able to buy more than what is on the list for background reading, if you like," Professor McGonagall finished.

"Yer gonna love Hogwarts!" Hagrid said happily. "Yer mum an' dad loved it too! Best school o' magic in Britain!"

"We don't know much about the magical world," I said. "Outside of what Mum's diary said, of course."

"Yeh mean yeh never told 'em anythin'?" Hagrid roared at our relatives - boy, could his moods shift! "It was all in that letter Professor Dumbledore left! Professor McGonagall an' I saw 'im leave it!"

"We swore we'd stamp it all out of the brats when we took them in!"

"I thought so," I said quietly. "I had a feeling you knew what we were. But why didn't you ever tell us?" I said to our aunt, who flinched. "In her diary, Mum was so upset when you started to hate her!"

"Oh, of course she'd be the noble one!" Aunt Petunia shrieked. "After she got her letter, it was all Lily this and Lily that and oh Lily, we're so proud! Then she had to meet that brat Potter and have you two freaks and then get blown up and leave you with us!"

"I knew you were lying about the car crash!" I said.

"CAR CRASH? HOW COULD A CAR CRASH KILL LILY AN' JAMES POTTER?" Hagrid bellowed and would have stood up angrily if not for Professor McGonagall's restraining hand.

"What did happen to them?" Harry asked quietly. "All we were told is that they died in a car crash but we don't believe that." The tension was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

"It's a sad tale," Professor McGonagall sniffed. "It started with a Dark wizard called - called…"

"No one likes sayin' the name if they can help it," Hagrid put in.

"Voldemort?" I said and they shuddered violently. "It was in Mum's diary - he decided to come after me and Harry for some reason and they had to go into hiding."

"Yes, they did," Professor McGonagall said. "He found you on Halloween ten years ago and he - he killed Lily and James." She sniffed and produced a handkerchief out of thin air. Dabbing her eyes, she continued. "He then tried to kill the two of you but couldn't. No one knows how but when he tried, you two somehow defeated him."

Harry and I suddenly remembered a flash of green light and a high, cold laugh. Shuddering, I drew closer to my brother.

"I took the two of yeh here," Hagrid said sadly. "Dumbledore's orders."

"What happened to Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"Some say he's gone," Hagrid replied after flinching. "I don' believe that. Wasn' human enough ter die, if yeh ask me. I reckon he's out there, waitin' fer the right time ter come back."

"Hagrid!" Professor McGonagall scolded. "No need to scare them!"

"Big load of rubbish!" Uncle Vernon said. "Listen here, you two. I know that you two are abnormal freaks that even a beating couldn't take care of and if you ask me, your parents got exactly what they deserved - I'd always wanted them to come to a sticky end -"

I gasped and began to cry as, furious, Professor McGonagall raised her wand but Hagrid got in first. He pointed his umbrella at Uncle Vernon and hissed some words that made the fat man pale.

"You - you horrible man!" I sobbed. I looked at our uncle, fire burning in my eyes. "I - I HATE you! I LOATHE you! I absolutely DESPISE you and I wish we'd never been left here!" I stood up and bolted from the room, crying furiously. When Harry found me, I was in our cupboard, hugging Mum's box to me as I cried my eyes out.

"I hate him too, Tessie," Harry said, putting an arm around me. I sobbed into his shoulder and Harry gently took the charm bracelet out and fastened it around my wrist. I gave my brother a watery smile.

"I love you, Harry," I whispered.

"Love you too, Tessie."

"I love you, sweetie," I heard and my head flew up sharply. A sharp intake of breath told me that Harry had heard too.

"M-Mum?" I said quietly.

"I'm always with you, Tessie-bean," the voice said and I distantly heard it over Harry's and my bond, meaning that it was talking to my brother too. I felt a warm sensation, like someone was giving me a hug, and then nothing.

"Oh, Mum!" I broke down even harder.

Twenty minutes later, Harry had managed to coax me out and we returned to the living room. I know I looked a sight but I really didn't care. Professor McGonagall gave me a sad look and Hagrid instantly jumped up and smothered me in a giant hug that probably cracked half my ribs. No one knew what to say, so Professor McGonagall continued on with business.

"We shall go and buy your supplies today and your relatives will be driving you to the station on September first." Here, she gave the Dursleys a stern look.

"I am not going to let them go off to a freaky school to learn freaky tricks under a crackpot old fool!" Uncle Vernon blustered. Hagrid stood up furiously.

"DON'T - INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!" he thundered and pointed his umbrella at Dudley, who screamed and clapped his hands over his bottom to hide a pig's tail that had suddenly appeared. The Dursleys screamed and ran from the room as Harry and I started laughing, albeit weakly.

"Er, shouldn'ta done that," Hagrid said sheepishly as Professor McGonagall fixed him with a stern look. "Meant ter turn him inter a pig but I s'pose he was too much like one anyway."

"Your Transfiguration work leaves a lot to be desired, Hagrid," Professor McGonagall said dryly. "And I shall not tell anyone, as long as you refrain from casting any more spells." Hagrid nodded in relief.

"Why can't you cast spells?" Harry wondered.

"Got expelled in me third year," Hagrid replied. "They snapped me wand an' all."

"Why -?"

"Come on, let's go get yer stuff!" Hagrid stood up and quickly made for the front door. We heard a crash and I started giggling as we saw that he'd broken the door again. Shaking her head, Professor McGonagall repaired it again and we left the house, the neighbours staring at us curiously.

"Wait!" I said and ran back to fetch the cake and box - I knew Dudley would eat the cake and I didn't trust the Dursleys not to do something to Mum's box, which was what I told the others when I apologised.

We caught a bus into London, where Hagrid's size attracted a lot of attention, especially when he got stuck - Harry and I had to help him get free, since Professor McGonagall couldn't use magic in front of the Muggles (non-magic people, as they were called).

We got off at Charing Cross Road and Hagrid and Professor McGonagall led us to a pub called The Leaky Cauldron, which Harry and I felt only we magical people could see. When we got inside, everyone went quiet when they saw us and then there was a huge crowd wanting to shake our hands and touch us. We also met our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, who had a bit of a stutter on him - apparently, he'd run into a hag and some vampires.

Professor McGonagall opened a doorway in a brick wall out the back by tapping a certain brick and when we entered Diagon Alley, Harry's and my mouths fell open. It was amazing!

Professor McGonagall explained that we had to visit the bank, Gringotts, to withdraw some money and as we made our way up to it, Harry and I looked around in wonder.

At Gringotts, we had to ride a death-defying cart down to our vault, which was absolutely packed with gold. I was pretty sure that my eyes fell out when we saw it! After that, we picked up a secret something from another vault that spiked our curiosity at once - all we knew was that it was a small package.

While Hagrid went to The Leaky Cauldron to recover from the carts, Professor McGonagall took us to Madam Malkin's, the robe shop, and we met an arrogant, unpleasant boy there that reminded us of Dudley. He talked about the wizarding sport Quidditch and the school houses at Hogwarts and asked us what our names were before Madam Malkin told us our robes were done, so he never got an answer.

When we left the shop, we saw that Hagrid was back with some ice creams for us and we asked the adults about the houses - though Professor McGonagall at least tried not to show bias, they didn't seem to particularly like Slytherin, which was where the boy wanted to go.

When we got to the bookshop, I made a large pile of books I wanted to buy, only to be told by an amused Professor McGonagall that I could only pick out a few, since our money had to last us through seven years of Hogwarts. Grumbling, I picked out _Hogwarts: A History _and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts _- the last one, I chose because the Dark Arts fascinated me, what with how they could attract so many people. Not that I wanted to become Dark or anything!

When told I could choose one more, I picked a book about potion ingredients and how each ingredient reacted with another - Potions seemed like it would be really fun!

In the Apothecary, I decided then and there and I wanted to be great at Potions - it was so fascinating! Ignoring the smell, I examined heaps of ingredients until we had to leave. Hagrid decided to buy us an owl for our birthday and though we protested, we walked away with a beautiful snowy owl.

"Now we have to buy your wands and then we are finished," Professor McGonagall said and led us to Ollivander's, the wand shop. Inside, the wandmaker scared the heck out of us and then told us about our parents' wands - Mum had willow and unicorn hair, while Dad had mahogany and phoenix feather. After measuring us and making a speech about wand cores, he handed us some wands to try.

Harry got his first - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches. Ollivander kept murmuring, "Curious…" and went to fetch another wand, which was willow and phoenix feather, twelve and a half inches. When I took it, I felt a warmth in my fingers and produced red, yellow and blue sparks when I waved the wand. Ollivander kept muttering until we asked him what was curious. He revealed that the phoenix who had given the feathers for our wand also gave a feather to Voldemort's wand, meaning that we had sibling wands. The adults paled a little upon hearing that.

After Diagon Alley, Hagrid left and Professor McGonagall gave us our tickets for the Hogwarts Express, explained how to get onto the platform, escorted us home on the bus and then threatened the Dursleys again for good measure.

This was the best day I'd ever had!

**Sorry for this long A/N but here's my answer to Seeing Spirits. I talk lightly about Sophie being a Mary Sue because she is not like Ebony Way or Violet's Mary Sue; she is not wish fulfilment. In fact, dismissing her shows me that my writing has improved since then and I know what **_**not **_**to do. You want to know exactly why I hate Mary Sues? Here's part of the PM I sent back to Violet, apologising:**

'_**I can even justify my hatred of Mary Sues: I'm a nerd with more online friends than real ones and I was bullied for a bit and even had someone say they hate me. When I see a perfect person like Violet pop up, making light of bullying and having a relationship with zero effort, it just gets me mad. I mean, here I am without even having kissed someone yet and Violet goes and snags someone straight away.'**_

**There. That is the reason I detest Mary Sues. I'm not justifying flaming Violet - in fact, I felt terrible afterwards - but she caught me on a day where I felt like someone was stabbing me in the gut and I was not in a good mood. Now, kindly go away whoever you are.**


	5. Ding, dong, the Dursleys are gone!

**Before anyone asks about the pairings and I get bombarded with reviews later, I'm changing them a little. The only original pairings I'm keeping are Harry/Ginny and Tess/Neville. And even then, I'm actually going to develop H/G.**

**And as for R/Hr…they are not compatible in any way. I could go on and on about it but the short version is, they have nothing in common apart from Gryffindor and Harry, the latter of who is the only reason they ever stop fighting at all, and all they ever do is bicker without ever resolving any fights. So Ron and Hermione will be paired with different people.**

**Thanks to mrs peeta mellark 2.0, Cookie05 and flowers-and-rainbows-123! If you say something worth replying to, I will PM you so that I don't clog up my A/Ns.**

**Disclaimer: Last one and then it'll be in the summary. I don't own HP!**

August with the Dursleys, although the best month Harry and I had ever had, wasn't very fun. Dudley was so terrified of us that he bolted whenever we so much as entered the same room as him but our aunt and uncle completely ignored us and pretended we didn't exist. While this was a pleasant change, it did get a little depressing after a little while.

Harry and I just stayed in our room with our new owl and now Zora to keep us company. While reading _A History of Magic_, Harry had found the name Hedwig and asked me what she thought. When I had said that I liked it, that was what he named our owl.

Harry and I often stayed up late into the night, poring through book after book of interesting information. When I had finished all my school textbooks, I moved onto _Hogwarts: A History_ and then my other two books, particularly my harder Potions book.

"It's amazing!" I told Harry. "It's nothing like cooking! One wrong measurement or wrong stir and you can screw it up completely!" I was very interested in how the different potion ingredients would react if mixed with each other, which was half of Potions anyway - the other half was to actually brew them.

"I think I find Defence more interesting," Harry shrugged in reply as Hedwig flew in with another dead mouse, which she loved to bring back for Zora. It was a good thing that Aunt Petunia didn't come to clean our room anymore or she'd have a heart attack.

Every night, Harry and I ticked off another day on our homemade calendar, counting down to when we left. Zora grew sadder and sadder as time passed; as I had pointed out numerous times before, we were only allowed to bring an owl, cat or toad, not a snake, let alone a venomous one. On the last night of August, I brought up an important point.

"Harry…how exactly are we getting to the platform?" I asked. Harry blinked.

"Erm…I dunno. I guess we can always ask Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia."

"Good luck getting them to agree," I scoffed but marked my page and followed him down anyway. When he cleared his throat, Dudley looked away from the quiz show on TV, screamed and ran from the room.

"Er - Uncle Vernon?"

Grunt.

"Tess and I need to be at King's Cross station tomorrow to catch the train."

Grunt.

"Could you drive us there?"

Grunt. My brother took it as a yes.

"Thanks."

We turned and went to leave when our fat uncle finally said something.

"Why go to a magic school by train? Magic carpets and brooms out of whack, eh?"

Neither Harry nor I said anything, though I was tempted to tell the man I loathed that he was right about broomsticks being magical.

"Where is this school, anyway?" Shrugging, I took my ticket out of my pocket.

"We just take the train from platform nine and three quarters at eleven o'clock," I said. Our aunt and uncle stared at us.

"There's no such thing," Aunt Petunia said.

"Oh, there is," I said lightly. "I'm sure you know about it, seeing as you were there for Mum's first trip - it said so in her diary." Aunt Petunia's face turned an ugly red colour. "And besides, we were told how to get onto the platform anyway, so as if we'd need your help."

"Get out!" Aunt Petunia screeched and Harry and I retreated to our room.

"You know, Tess, sometimes you don't know when to stop," Harry said and I gave him a withering look.

The next morning, I woke up at five and I was so excited that I couldn't go back to sleep. Looking over at Harry, who was already dressing, I knew he felt the same way and I couldn't help but grin widely.

After dressing in a skirt and a sweater, I plaited my hair and then lay down to re-read my school books while Harry paced up and down nervously, triple-checking his trunk and making sure for the hundredth time that Hedwig was in her cage.

She was not amused.

"_Oh, can't I come to Hogwarts?" _I smiled sadly at Zora, who had entered our room through the window that we kept open for her.

"_Sorry, Zora, but you know the rule. Only owls, cats or toads. Besides, I think you'd scare everyone there." _Zora hissed in offence and turned her back on me.

"Why can't you take Zora but hide her?" Harry suggested and Zora perked up at this. "If anyone sees her, you can say that she won't bite anyone and that she's well-behaved."

"_I think I like Harry more than you now," _Zora said smugly and I shot the snake a glare.

"Fine, be like that," I muttered. "But we can't tell anyone that we can talk to snakes." When Harry gave me a curious look, I held up _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts._

"According to this, people who can talk to snakes are called Parselmouths and are thought of as evil," I explained. "Which is a load of rubbish, considering we're Parselmouths, but I wouldn't put it past people to label us as evil just for being able to talk to them."

"_Ok, I'll stay hidden, I get it," _Zora sighed.

"Don't try and guilt-trip me, Zor,"I muttered in English. For some reason, every snake I've met seemed to be able to understand English, though we didn't have a semblance of control over them unless we spoke Parseltongue. Zora confirmed that she could understand my English but didn't feel compelled to listen to me unless I spoke the snake language.

-HPTP-

"Platform nine, platform ten, yours doesn't seem to be here!" Uncle Vernon said gleefully, pushing the trolley with my trunk into me and winding me. I glared at him as Aunt Petunia just let go of Harry's trolley, rubbing her hand as if it had contaminated her.

"If you're trying to scare us, it's not working," I said dryly. "Come on, Harry." And without even saying goodbye, we left the Dursleys where they stood.

"So we have to go through the barrier between platforms nine and ten?" Harry muttered.

"That's what Professor McGonagall said," I replied, shrugging and upsetting Zora, who vented her anger by scaring a nearby man - well, she shouldn't nest in my collar! Upon finding the barrier, Harry pushed on it but his hand went right through it!

"Whoa!" Harry jumped back in alarm and I started giggling while Zora snorted.

"Are you going through any time soon?" a pompous voice said and we turned to see a tall redheaded boy watching us. What looked like the rest of his family was standing a little way away - a woman, two twins, a boy and a girl.

"Don't you know how to get onto the platform, dears?" the redheaded woman said kindly, bustling up to us. "I can show you if you like."

"Oh, thanks, but we know how," I grinned sheepishly. "It just surprised us, is all. Come on, Harry!" And with that, I turned and pushed my trolley through the barrier, emerging on a platform with loads of people and a large red train.

"It's amazing!" Harry breathed when he made it onto the platform. Nodding, I set off to find a compartment with him and when we found one, we tried to lift our trunks up but failed.

"Need a hand?" It was one of the redheaded twins from the platform and I nodded gratefully. "Oi, Fred! Get over here and help!"

Once our trunks were stashed away, Harry thanked the redheaded boys with a smile and pushed his hair out of his eyes. The twins' eyes bulged.

"Is that -?"

"Are you -?"

"Who?" my bewildered brother said.

"Harry Potter!"

"Oh, yes, I am."

"Then you're Tessa Potter!" The twins turned to me and I grew uncomfortable under their gaze.

"Er, yes, I am, but call me Tess." The twins continued to stare at us until their mother called for them and with one last look, they left.

"_I hope everyone's not going to be like that," _Zora hissed grumpily as we got onto the train. _"I don't do well with staring."_

"_We're famous," _I said dryly. _"I'd be surprised if they weren't."_

Once we'd sat down, we spotted the redheaded family out on the platform and Harry leaned back so that they wouldn't see him eavesdropping. Shaking my head with a smile, I opened one of my Potions books and started to read. I heard something about a prefect, dirty nose, a girl squealing about wanting to meet Harry and Tessa Potter and children named Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. When I looked up at Harry, he clarified who was who and I went back to reading.

The train let out a warning whistle and parents started crying and laughing anew, making my stomach twinge. What would it have been like to have a parent to see us off to Hogwarts?

_I'm so proud of you and your brother, sweetie,_ the woman's voice said and I looked up and frowned. Harry nodded at me to tell me that he'd heard it too.

"Alright, either we're going completely insane or we're being stalked or haunted by someone claiming to be our mother," I said and Zora hissed with laughter. I heard the woman's tinkling laughter and then nothing.

"This is so weird," Harry muttered.

"You're telling me." Just then, the compartment door opened to reveal the youngest redheaded boy.

"Can I sit here? There's nowhere else to sit," he said. Harry nodded and the boy crossed over and sat opposite us.

"I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

"Tess Potter. Call me Tessa or Tessie and you die." Ron goggled at us.

"Really? So you two have those - those…"

"Those what?" I said irritably. I wanted to avoid those who wanted to cash in on our fame and this Ron boy was really starting to seem like one of those people.

"_Scars_!" Ron whispered. Harry moved his fringe to show his and I reluctantly copied the movement.

"Wicked! So that's where -"

"Yes," I muttered. "And before you ask, we don't remember anything except a flash of green." Ron went red and looked out the window and Harry gave me a look.

'_Tess! Be nicer!'_

'_What if he just wants our fame?'_

'_I doubt that.'_

'_Well, he could be tactful at the least! Asking someone what they remember about their parents' murder…'_

'_True…'_

After that, Harry and Ron started talking about family. Ron had five brothers and one sister and apparently, their family was poor so he had to have his brothers' old robes, pet and wand. When Ron introduced his rat, Scabbers, I felt Zora tense and she hissed lowly.

"_What's up?" _I said quietly so that Ron couldn't hear.

"_That rat…something's not right. He smells funny." _Frowning, I studied Scabbers but he looked like an ordinary rat to me. Maybe magical rats were different to normal rats? When I told Zora this, she looked sceptical but seemed to accept it.

I tuned in to hear about Ron's inferiority complex and I frowned.

"Well, at least you have a family," I muttered. "Harry and I only have each other - what we wouldn't kill for a family like yours…"

_I'm with you, sweetie,_ Mum said. By now, the shock of hearing our dead mum's voice had worn off and I was now starting to think I was crazy, especially when Ron didn't seem to react as if he'd heard anything.

_Is Dad there? _I thought.

_Yes but only I can talk to you and Harry, _Mum replied and I blinked in shock. I didn't actually think she'd answer - she usually popped in at random times! By the look in Harry's eyes, I could see that he had heard her too.

To try and cheer Ron up, Harry started telling him about our home life and how we'd never had anything to call our own.

"…and until Hagrid and Professor McGonagall came to our house, we didn't know anything about the magical world or Voldemort -" Harry said and I was happy that he'd at least kept Mum's box a secret. Ron gasped at Voldemort's name.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" he said. "I'd have thought the two of you, of all people -"

"Why would we be scared of saying the name of the person who wrecked our lives?" I said. "That's just giving him more power."

Harry lamented that he'd probably be worst in the class and I rolled my eyes.

"Harry, you only sucked in primary school because we had to get lower grades than Dudley," I said. "Of course you won't be the worst."

"And besides, there are loads of Muggle-born children who learn quickly enough," Ron added. "Like Tess, for instance." I gave Ron a small smile and the boys watched the countryside pass by as I returned to my book. At around noon, a smiling lady opened the door of our compartment.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" she said and Harry jumped up, eager to see what she had on offer. He came back in with an armful of sweets and I thought, _Typical. Hype kids up on candy for a long train trip where they have nowhere to burn it off. Great idea, people! _Mum chuckled in my head.

"Here you go, Tess." Harry gave me a small mountain of sweets and I raised my eyebrows with a grin and put it on the seat next to me. Harry offered Ron a sweet but he quickly declined.

"I've got sandwiches," he said, pulling them out and then lamenting the fact that his mother had forgotten that he didn't like corned beef.

_If I were you, I'd be grateful she even made you a sandwich, _I thought sadly.

_You have to start letting people in, Tess, _Mum said. _Give him a chance. How do you expect to make friends if you keep yourself closed off from everyone? _I realised that Mum was right; I was too afraid of getting hurt that I didn't even have any friends to get hurt by.

"Listen, I'm sorry Ron," I said awkwardly. "I - I just haven't had friends before and I'm pretty guarded…I'm not like Harry, I cope with books."

"S'okay, Tess," Ron smiled and the tension was gone. I sent a quick thanks to Mum and then actually put my book away and made an effort to have a conversation, even though it made me a little uncomfortable.

Ron had fun explaining what Chocolate Frogs were and helped us get started on our own collection. He told us that he still had to collect a few more cards, two of which were Agrippa and Ptolemy.

"And they're really rare, so I doubt I'll get one soon," he sighed.

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and I stole the card with a smirk at his indignant face. On the front of it was a man with a long silver beard and hair, a crooked nose and half-moon spectacles. His name was Albus Dumbledore.

"Oh, so this is Dumbledore!" Harry said, peering over my shoulder.

"You haven't heard of Dumbledore?" Ron said in astonishment. "He's like the most famous wizard ever, apart from Merlin! Can I have another Frog? Thanks!"

I turned the card over and Harry and I read:

_ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS_

_Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling._

When I turned the card back over, Dumbledore was gone.

"He's gone!" Harry blinked.

"Of course, you can't expect him to stay there all day!" Ron said.

"We knew photos could move, we just didn't think anything else could," I defended Harry.

"But in the Muggle world, photos stay still," Harry said to Ron, who goggled.

Once we had a fair collection of cards, Harry opened a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"Be careful," Ron warned. "They literally mean every flavour - my brother George got a booger-flavoured one once!"

"How would he know what a booger tastes like?" I grinned and Harry and Ron snorted before Ron took a green bean, popped it in his mouth and then made a face.

"Sprouts! Yuck!"

We had a lot of fun with the Beans and I ended up getting raspberry, dirt, tea, paper, salmon, carrot and apple. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and a girl with long, light brown hair walked in.

"D'you mind?" she asked hesitantly. "I _have _to get away from the other girls in the compartment…all that talk about hair and makeup…"

"Sure, go ahead," I smiled and the girl beamed at me and sat down next to Ron.

"I'm Tayla Stevens, by the way," she said. We all introduced ourselves and though she raised her eyebrows at my and Harry's names, she said nothing. Harry and I offered her some sweets, which she accepted with another bright smile, and about ten minutes after that, a boy with a round, tearstained face came in.

"Sorry but have any of you seen a toad?" he asked. When we shook our heads, he let out a wail. "He keeps getting away from me!" I felt sorry for the boy and I smiled and stood up, ready to put my new friend-making skills to the test…yeah, what skills?

"I'm sure he'll turn up but would you like help finding him?" I asked and the boy nodded furiously. I turned to Harry.

"Be good now, Harrykins," I teased, patting him on the head. My brother gave me a mock-outraged look and Ron and Tayla snorted into their hands before I turned and left with the boy.

"Thanks," he said quietly. "I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Tess Potter but I'll murder you if you call me Tessa or Tessie," I said and Neville's eyes bulged.

"I - ok, I won't -"

"You think I'm serious?" I said in alarm. "Ah…I'm not exactly a social butterfly. I was joking…" We stood there in an awkward silence before deciding to continue the search for Neville's toad. After emerging from another compartment, I bumped into a girl and we crashed to the floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the girl gasped. She had bushy brown hair, brown eyes, large front teeth and gave off an air I was familiar with: a victim of bullying and a fellow intellect. Maybe it was the robes she was already wearing…

"No, I'm sorry," I said, getting up and helping her up. Next to her was also a boy with brown hair and blue-green eyes - he seemed like the quiet type.

"I'm Hermione Granger and this is Cody Archer," the girl said. "We met in Diagon Alley and we've been friends ever since then, which is brilliant because I've never had friends before and neither has he!" She said it all in one breath.

"Same here with the friendless thing," I grinned. "This is Neville Longbottom and I'm Tess Potter - don't even think about calling me Tessa or Tessie. I wonder how many times I'm going to have to repeat that…" I mumbled to myself. Hermione gasped and Cody raised his eyebrows in a manner that reminded me of Tayla.

"Oh, I've heard of you and your brother!" Hermione said. "You're in quite a few books, you know!"

"Yeah, I've read _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_," I said. "I don't know about those supposed interviews, though…I think Harry and I'd remember talking to wizards… Anyway, we're looking for Neville's toad. Have you seen it?"

"No but do you want help?" Cody asked and Neville and I nodded. After checking a few compartments, we found ourselves back at Harry's, Tayla's and Ron's - the redhead had his wand out and was pointing it at Scabbers.

"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville here's lost his," Hermione said bossily, opening the compartment door. Harry, Tayla and Ron looked at her and shook their heads and Harry gave me a smile when he saw me.

"Are you doing magic?" Hermione continued, seeing the wand in Ron's hand. "Let's see, then!"

She entered the compartment and sat down. Cody, Neville and I followed her and Ron raised his wand, cleared his throat and said, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Nothing happened.

"I don't think that's a real spell," Cody grinned while Tayla snickered behind her hand. Meanwhile, Hermione was rambling about all the books she'd read and some spells she'd tried at home and finished off by introducing herself, Cody, Neville and me.

"Ron Weasley," Ron blinked.

"Tayla Stevens," Tayla grinned.

"Harry Potter," Harry said. "So I already know Tess…"

"Oh, so you're Tess's brother?" Hermione said. "I've read all about the two of you, though Tess doesn't seem to think the books are accurate because you would have remembered interviewing someone!"

"I'd think we would have too," Harry said after a moment.

"Oh, do any of you know which house you'd like to be in?" Hermione said. "I'd love to be in Gryffindor, I heard Professor Dumbledore was in that house, but Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, I suppose."

"I'm holding out for Gryffindor or Ravenclaw too," I said. "I'd probably be good in Slytherin too, if not for that annoying blond we met in Diagon Alley - he wanted to be in it, so I'm staying far away."

"Same as Hermione and Tess," Cody shrugged. "Except for the Slytherin thing…we ran into some Slytherins earlier and I don't think they were too happy to see us…"

"I'd probably be in Hufflepuff but my parents were in Gryffindor," Neville said quietly. "My gran would be disappointed if I wasn't in Gryffindor."

"Anyway, we should continue looking for Neville's toad," Hermione said. "I expect we'll be arriving soon so you two might want to change." She, Cody, Neville and I left and after a moment, we heard Tayla fumbling around, trying to exit to meet us.

"Wait up!" she said and tripped over as she managed to shut the door. "Man, I'm such a klutz!" Hermione and I started giggling and Cody even let out a snicker, making Tayla's cheeks stain red.

"I think you sent Harry into information overload," I grinned at Hermione, who looked panicked.

"Oh, I hope he doesn't hate me! I just like to show off my knowledge and prove that I'm smart and -"

"Relax," Cody smirked. "I'm sure was just joking." Grinning, I nodded in agreement.

"Oh, where is Trevor?" Neville wailed.

"I'm sure he'll turn up soon," I said kindly, putting my hand on his shoulder. Neville gave me a weak smile in return. When he turned to talk to Hermione, I felt Zora raise her head and sniff the air.

"_I can smell the boy's toad in the next train carriage," _she told me and I hissed a thanks.

"Why don't we try the next car?" I suggested. "We've only been looking in this one and he could have made it to another car." Hermione seemed to think it was a good idea and immediately made her way towards it, Cody following with a small grin. Neville, Tayla and I hurried after the two of them and, sure enough, we found Trevor in one of the compartments.

"Wow! Thanks, Tess!" Neville said. "How'd you guess?"

"Just a feeling," I said, a little guilty that I had to hide my Parseltongue from them. I heard Zora hissing, proud with herself, and I rolled my eyes.

We returned to Hermione and Cody's compartment and Cody and Neville left to let me change into my robes and vice versa.

"I never actually thought I'd have friends," I admitted to the other four when we were changed. "I'm usually a pretty guarded person - our cousin Dudley would chase off anyone who got friendly to me and Harry so I learned to shut it all out."

"Oh, that's horrible!" Hermione gasped. "In my case, no one at all wanted to be friends with me!"

"The only other kids I know aren't very nice at all," Neville said. "That blond you described in Harry and Ron's compartment sounds like Draco Malfoy - he's really unpleasant."

"I only had one friend but she moved away when I was eight," Cody said sadly. "We tried to keep in touch but she moved too far away."

"I had a few friends but I used to scare everyone off with my accidental magic," Tayla said. "That and my clumsiness."

"I guess we're all weird, aren't we?" I laughed. All of a sudden, we heard screams and Cody, Tayla and I burst out laughing when we saw Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle run past our compartment, screaming like little girls. Neville was grinning shyly and, rolling her eyes with a small smile, Hermione stood up and left to find the source of the commotion.

"Ron Weasley's rat bit Goyle," was what she told us when she returned - that just made me and Cody laugh even harder. When we were calm, Hermione told us about Ron's suspicions of Draco's father being in Voldemort's inner circle when he was in power.

"I can't say I'm surprised, if his son's anything like him," I said darkly.

A few minutes later, a message sounded, saying that we were nearing Hogwarts and to leave our luggage on the train.

"_Sorry, Zor, but you'll have to stay here," _I whispered. Sulking, Zora slithered down my sleeve so that I could discreetly deposit her in my trunk when I got the chance and to placate her, I said, _"I'll try and save you some meat from dinner!" _A huff was all I got before the train slowed down and eventually stopped.

"I wonder where we go now!" Hermione said eagerly, jumping off the train. Once Cody, Neville, Tayla and I were off too, we looked around for a few moments before we heard Hagrid's voice calling us. Once all the first-years were assembled in front of him, we set off up a narrow track through what seemed to be a forest, if the dark masses on either side of us were anything to go by.

"Yeh'll get yer first look at Hogwarts jus' round this bend!" Hagrid told us and when we rounded it, everyone let out a collective, "Oooooh!"

On the other side of the giant lake in front of us was the most beautiful castle I'd ever seen, with illuminated windows and lots of tall towers.

Hagrid directed us towards the boats waiting for us and Hermione, Cody, Neville and I shared one. A boy joined Harry, Tayla and Ron and when everyone was sitting in a boat, we set off. Staring dreamily up at the castle, I trailed my hand in the glassy water, lost in my own little world.

_It is beautiful, isn't it, Tess? _Mum said.

_Alright, how is it possible for a dead woman to talk to me and my brother? _I demanded but Mum didn't answer. The moment was ruined and by the time I was back in my dreamy state, Hagrid had told us to lower our heads before we passed through a curtain of ivy, so I couldn't watch the castle anymore. After drifting down a dark tunnel which led to an underground harbour of sorts, we ot out of the boats and Hagrid checked them all for things people may have left behind - Neville's toad had apparently escaped again and Hagrid found him.

Once out of the harbour and on thick, damp grass, Hagrid led us up stone steps to a giant pair of doors.

"Everyone here?" he called and when we nodded, he raised his hand and knocked on the doors three times.

**I've actually decided to make the Parseltongue a bloodline trait, so that Harry and Tess get to keep their Parseltongue after DH. You guys'll find out how in Chamber of Secrets but let's just say that some people are in for quite a surprise ;) **


	6. I'm talking to a hat which talks back!

…**Wow. I am SO sorry for not updating! I actually had this completed but totally forgot about it, what with school, work, weekly torture walks and everything. So, as a peace offering, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow instead of in a week, so please put those pitchforks and flaming torches down!**

**Thanks to mrs peeta mellark, flowers-and-rainbows-123 and Lady Elizabeth of New York! I hope that when I hit GoF at least, the review start accumulating like in my old story!**

The doors swung open at once to reveal a stern-faced woman dressed in an emerald cloak and I decided that this was not someone to annoy.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid announced.

"Thank you, I'll take them now," the woman said and opened the doors wider to admit the first-years. We crowded in and looked around nervously at the marble staircase and torches.

'_Wow! The Dursleys' house would fit in here with room left over!' _Harry thought and I agreed.

'_I'd say there'd be room for a swimming pool as well.'_

A pair of golden doors stood to the left and Harry and I could hear the drone of hundreds of voices there but Professor McGonagall led us into a small chamber off to the right. We all shrunk together into a tight, nervous group.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "The start of year feast will begin in a few minutes but before you can join the rest of the school, you must be sorted into your houses. This is a very important ceremony because your house will be like your family while at Hogwarts. You will eat your meals at your house tables, sleep in your house dormitories, have classes with your housemates and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has a noble background and outstanding people have been produced from each house. While at Hogwarts, you will earn house points for any achievements but they will be taken if you break any rules. I hope each of you will be a credit to your houses."

Professor McGonagall's eyes roamed over Neville, whose cloak was somehow fastened under his left ear, to Ron, whose nose was still dirty. Harry tried flattening his hair and I grinned to myself.

"I shall return when we are ready. Please wait quietly." When Professor McGonagall left, I smiled at Neville and started fixing his cloak, if only to give myself something to do, until a blond boy looked straight at me and said, "So, it's true? Both the Potter twins have come to Hogwarts."

Whispering broke out everywhere and I stopped fixing Neville's cloak to look at the boy.

"This is Crabbe and Goyle," the boy said, nodding at his two gorilla-like companions. "And I'm Malfoy - Draco Malfoy."

"Leave her alone!" Harry said defensively - he'd always been protective of me. "If I didn't want to be friends with you, why would she?" Malfoy ignored Harry and eyed up Neville, Cody, Tayla and Hermione.

"You're hanging around the wrong type of people, just like your brother, Tess," he said. "A buck-toothed beaver, a little nerd, a plain little girl and a Longbottom? I can show you the right sort of people." He held out his hand.

"I'm sure I can manage," I said frostily, raising my eyebrows. "I don't appreciate you putting my new friends down." Hermione, Cody, Tayla and Neville gave me a small smile and Malfoy flushed.

"You'll regret the day you turned down a Malfoy!" he spat.

_Eww…I'd never go out with him! _I shuddered.

"Just like your brother…you two'll go the same way as your mummy and daddy if you don't learn some respect." I felt myself filling with rage and clenched my fists, trying to rein my temper in, just as Professor McGonagall reappeared and tapped Malfoy on the shoulder with her parchment.

"We're ready for you now," she said. "Please form a line and follow me."

I got into line between Hermione and Neville and followed Professor McGonagall out of the chamber and to the golden doors. They swung open and Professor McGonagall led us into the hall. My mouth fell open; there were thousands of candles floating everywhere and above four long tables was a ceiling that looked exactly like the night sky.

"The ceiling's enchanted to look like the sky outside!" Hermione whispered. "I read about in -"

"_Hogwarts: A History_ - I know," I smiled. "I've got that book and I must have re-read it at least a hundred times." Hermione beamed at me and I beamed back.

We were led up to a fifth table, where all the teachers were sitting, and Professor McGonagall put a stool and raggedy old hat down - I immediately started dreaming of setting it loose in Privet Drive. Suddenly, a rip near the brim opened and the hat started singing:

_"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_"We've gotta find a smarter hat!" Ivy said._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!"_

The hat bowed to each of the house tables and the students burst into applause and my stomach lurched. The hat seemed to be asking for a lot. I didn't feel brave, smart, cunning or loyal - in fact, I felt like I was going to be sick.

'_Don't worry, I feel sick too,' _Harry reassured me.

"I can't believe it! Fred went on about taking on a troll!" Ron said.

"Why would they make us do that?" I frowned, not believing how silly this boy could be sometimes. "We're just eleven - how could we wrestle a troll?" I got a shiver after that, the one that you usually get when you've predicted something ominous for the future.

When the applause died down, Professor McGonagall unrolled her parchment and said, "When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and put the hat on to be sorted. Abbott, Hannah!"

A blonde, pink-faced girl with pigtails nervously made her way up and sat down. The fat fell down to her chin and after a moment, yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!" The far right table started cheering and Hannah Abbott scurried over to sit with them.

"Archer, Cody!"

"GRYFFINDOR!" The table on the far left cheered and I saw Fred and George catcalling.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

This time, it was the table second from the left that cheered as Terry joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Bulstrode, Millicent!"

"SLYTHERIN!" To me, the Slytherins looked like a very unpleasant bunch.

I started scanning all the tables, wondering about which house I'd like to be placed in - I was currently tossing up between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw and I made my mind up when Hermione was called and went to Gryffindor with Cody.

As Hermione sat down, I caught sight of a girl sitting by herself at the end of the Gryffindor table, a few seats away from the Weasleys. There were a few empty seats next to her, as if no one wanted to sit with her, and when Hermione and Cody tried to strike up a conversation with the girl, she turned away - only I caught the flicker of sadness on her face, which morphed into a blank mask.

_I wonder what the story is there? _I thought and tuned back in to hear, "GRYFFINDOR!" Neville ran to the Gryffindor table while I cheered loudly but he was still wearing the hat and had to run back while everyone laughed.

'_What if there was a mistake? What if I just sit there with the hat and Professor McGonagall has to send me back to the Dursleys on the train?'_

'_Harry, you're an idiot!' _I scolded. _'Why would they have accepted us here if we weren't magical? And even if we weren't, we wouldn't be able to see Hogwarts - I read that there's an enchantment that keeps out Muggles.' _My mental voice took on a smug tone at the end of my response.

_Tessie, be nice to your brother,_ Mum said. I didn't bother to grace that with a response, knowing that she wouldn't answer if I asked how this was possible.

As soon as the hat touched Malfoy's greasy hair, it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!" and Malfoy joined the Slytherins, looking very pleased with himself.

I started to grow more and more nervous as the line of first-years grew shorter and the names moved from 'M' to 'N' and then 'P'. Finally -

"Potter, Harry!"

Whispers broke out across the hall and I had to gently poke Harry to get him to move up to the hat, which fell over his eyes when it was put on. While Harry sat there, I looked around at everyone staring at him and annoyance started to grow alongside my nerves. I thought of listening to Harry's Sorting but decided against it; there were just some things you didn't eavesdrop on and this was one of them.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat eventually shouted and, grinning in relief, Harry took the hat off and made his way to the Gryffindors

"Potter, Tessa!"

More murmuring broke out and people were trying to look at me. As I walked up, I caught the eye of a teacher with a hooked nose, sallow skin and greasy black hair, and I saw a look of surprise, pain and what even seemed to be recognition in his eyes. I heard what sounded like a brief gasp from Mum but pushed it out of my mind as I sat down and put the hat on.

"Hmm, more difficult than your brother," a small voice said in my ear. "Very brave, cunning, a real thirst for knowledge, even more than your brother I see. Intelligent, you would do really well in Ravenclaw. I might even put you there!"

I grew a bit nervous then. Who did I know who was in Ravenclaw?

"You aren't very good at trusting people and you are loyal only to a select few - though the depth of that loyalty could see you in Hufflepuff, I don't think that is the right house for you. Your cunning and ambition could see you in Slytherin, oh yes, along with your affinity for snakes - Salazar Slytherin would be proud to have you."

I started to panic a little at that - I did _not _want to go with Malfoy into an unpleasant-looking house!

"No need to panic, Miss Potter. Slytherin is not the house of the evil - in fact, I can name an evil Gryffindor and a nasty Hufflepuff but it is not my place to say who they are. Quite often, ambition is mistaken for evil, because there are those who would tread over anyone and anything to be the best - that is the bad kind of ambition."

_That makes sense…_ I thought slowly.

"You show traits of all four of the houses but so do a lot of people. Now, which house to put you in?"

_I don't know anyone in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff and I don't want to be in Slytherin with that git Malfoy!_ I thought.

"So you want to be with your friends? You'd do better in Ravenclaw or Slytherin, although I can see you doing well in Gryffindor, with your bravery and nobility, just like your brother. Miss Granger could have gone to Ravenclaw but she chose Gryffindor. And Mr Malfoy does not represent all of Slytherin - in fact, most of them only choose to join Lord Voldemort because of the stereotype that is forced onto them. Now, what house would you like to be placed in?"

And that for me was the ultimate question. I couldn't stand to be apart from my brother - he was my best, best friend, the only friend I had had throughout my life.

_Gryffindor_, I thought. _Put me in Gryffindor._

"Very well then…GRYFFINDOR!"

The noise in the hall was deafening. Gryffindor, ecstatic at having gained both the famous Potter twins, were yelling themselves hoarse, while Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were applauding politely and Slytherin were just sitting there. I sat down next to Harry and opposite the girl and Hermione and Percy Weasley shook my hand.

"Excellent, Tessa," he said pompously and I smiled before looking at the girl and blinking. She looked almost exactly like the hooked-nosed teacher, with the same black hair, though it hung to just below her shoulders and wasn't greasy. Her skin was pale, almost white, rather than sallow, and her eyes were a cold black colour. All in all, she wasn't bad looking and I guessed that she'd be a real beauty when she was a little older, if only her eyes would thaw out a little.

I would have introduced myself but the Sorting was continuing.

After Tayla and Dean Thomas went to Gryffindor and Lisa Turpin went to Ravenclaw, Ron was put into Gryffindor and Blaise Zabini was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her parchment and took the hat and stool away. My stomach rumbled and I looked down at my plate, only then realising exactly how hungry I was.

The headmaster, an old man with a long, shining silver beard, stood up, his arms wide as if his greatest joy was seeing them all sitting there, happy and well.

"I have a few words to say to all of you!" he said. "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" And he sat back down.

"Is he…mad?" Harry asked carefully.

"Of course he is," the black-haired girl snorted.

"He's a genius!" Percy said, glaring at the girl. "Would you like some potatoes, Harry?"

Harry's and my mouths fell open. The dishes in front of us were now piled with food. Neither Harry nor I had ever seen so many things we liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

Harry always thought that we had ever been starved by the Dursleys but they'd never let us eat as much as we'd have liked but I knew that we had in fact been starved. Dudley would also take anything we wanted, even if it made him sick. Harry and I filled our plates and then dug in.

"I'm Tess Potter," I said to the black-haired girl and held out my hand, smiling.

"I know who you are," the girl scowled. I retracted my hand, my smile dimming. I was just trying to be nice; the girl didn't need to be rude to me!

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Not that it's any of your business but it's Ivy. Ivy Snape."

_Snape? _Mum said in surprise. _Oh, I'm so happy for Sev!_

_Sev? As in Severus Snape? _I blinked, looking back up at the staff table. Now that I thought about it, he did bear some resemblance to the boy in the photos with Mum…

"Well, excuse Tess for trying to be polite!" Harry was saying angrily when I came back to Earth.

_That's it, stand up for your sister, Harry! _Mum said proudly and Harry's twitch was the only sign that he'd heard.

"Don't mind her, she's rude to everyone," a Weasley twin said.

"She's a jerk, just like her father," the other twin added. "Everyone knows that!" Hurt flickered across the girl's face before her mask returned and I got the feeling that she was used to being judged like that.

"Have any of you actually tried to get to know her?" I said coldly - I didn't know what it was about the girl but I felt the need to stick up for her. "She just looks lonely to me."

"'She' is sitting right here," Ivy mumbled but it wasn't full of venom like before.

"Well, her father's a jerk, so she has to be one too!" a Gryffindor said, as if it should be obvious.

"And who exactly is her father?" I asked, even though I knew the answer. The Gryffindor pointed at Severus Snape

"Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin House - he favours them and despises us Gryffindors. He wants the Defence Against the Dark Arts job - he knows a lot about the Dark Arts - but he's stuck with Potions. None of us know why his daughter's in Gryffindor - she's a slimy snake and slimy snakes belong in Slytherin!"

'_Snape?' _Harry thought to me. _'Severus Snape?'_

'_Must be!' _I replied. _'I wonder if he'll tell us about Mum!'_

I returned to eating, occasionally giving Ivy small smiles, though the girl kept her eyes down on her food. I was now mad at everyone else; Harry and I knew more than anyone what it was like to be judged (in our case, for our ugly clothes and cousin) and I thought that all Ivy needed was a friend.

"That looks delicious," a ghost in a ruff and tights said sadly, watching Harry eat his steak.

"Can't you -?"

"Of course not," I rolled my eyes. "Isn't it obvious? He doesn't have a corporeal form!"

"Ok, you don't have to be such a know-it-all!" Ron said and I shot him a death glare. I didn't know what Harry saw in him!

"I don't believe I've introduced myself," the ghost said. "My name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington - I'm the ghost of Gryffindor."

"I've heard of you!" Ron said. "You're Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I'd prefer Sir Nicholas, if you don't mind," the ghost said stiffly.

"Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless?" Hermione asked curiously. Sir Nicholas looked irritated but caught hold of his ear.

"Like this." And he pulled, making his head swing onto his shoulder. I felt like my food was going to return up my throat at the sight and I was positive that my face was the same colour as my eyes. Looking pleased, Sir Nicholas swung his head back on.

"I hope you'll all help us win the House Cup this year!" he said. "Slytherin have won for six years in a row! The Bloody Baron is the Slytherin ghost - he's becoming simply unbearable!"

He pointed at a gaunt ghost covered in bloodstains, who was sitting next to Malfoy - the blond didn't look too happy about it and Tayla and I exchanged grins.

"How did he get all that blood on him?" Cody asked interestedly.

"I've never asked," Sir Nicholas replied.

The food disappeared and was then replaced with all kinds of desserts: blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding…

As Harry took some treacle tarts and I heaped some apple pie and ice cream onto my plate, the conversation turned to families.

"I'm a half-blood," Seamus said. "Me dad's a Muggle, Mam's a witch. She didn't tell him until after their wedding - bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out!"

Everyone laughed but I frowned; our aunt and uncle hated me and Harry because we were magical - what would Seamus be thinking if his father took it like our relatives?

"I'm a half-blood," Tayla said. "My parents are both Muggle-born but I'm technically not the child of a Muggle. My little sister Jessie's coming to Hogwarts next year too!"

"Well, my gran raised me," Neville said. "She's a witch but my family thought I wasn't magical for years. Great-Uncle Algie kept trying to force magic out of me - he once dropped me off the end of a pier and I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. He was dangling me out of an upstairs window and when Great-Aunt Enid gave him a meringue, he accidentally let go. But I bounced all around the garden. They were all so happy and Gran was even crying - they didn't think I'd be magical enough to come to Hogwarts. Great-Uncle Algie bought me Trevor as a present."

My mouth fell open; how could he talk about it so nonchalantly?

"That's horrible!" I gasped. "You know, in the Muggle world, that would called be child abuse!"

"Really?" Neville said in surprise. "That's what everyone used to do in the old days."

"Well, these aren't the old days," Tayla said. "They can't be proper guardians!"

"Gran's not abusive," Neville said uncomfortably. "She just - she expects a lot of me." Sensing that Neville was uncomfortable, I gave him a small, reassuring smile and tuned into a conversation with Percy and Hermione.

"I can't wait for lessons!" Hermione was saying. "Transfiguration sounds very interesting, turning one thing into another…"

"You'll just start with small stuff, turning into matches and needles and stuff like that," Percy said.

"Well, I can't wait for Potions!" I said. "It sounds very fascinating and I love my Potions textbook!" I would have gone on a mini-rant like Hermione was fond of doing but Fred (or was it George?) interrupted us.

"That won't last long! Snape squashes the interest out of everyone!" Ivy scowled and, frowning, I looked up at the staff table and caught the hook-nosed teacher's eye. His eyes widened and he quickly turned away.

"Did you see that?" I blinked. "Professor Snape seems to know me!"

"What? How could he?" Harry frowned and looked up at the table. My eyes slid across the staff table and when I caught Professor Quirrell's eye, a sharp pain flashed across my scar.

"Argh!" Harry and I raised our hands and touched our scars together.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"N-nothing," Harry said and then turned to me. _'Professor Snape looked at me and my scar hurt!' _he thought.

'_Really? I was looking at Professor Quirrell when mine hurt,'_ I replied. Harry blinked and went back to talking to Ron.

"Why does everyone hate your father?" I asked Ivy, trying to start a conversation and garner more information.

"Because he's unpleasant," Ivy sighed. "Not to me, of course, but to everyone in general. I don't know why - I think he was bullied and that turned him bitter. But people call him loads of mean things, like greasy git and dungeon bat, so Dad's not totally unjustified."

"Oh," I frowned. "Hey, did you know that he and Mum used to know each other? I have photos of them in my trunk!" Ivy's eyes widened and she went back to eating her pie uncomfortably. I now had a new goal: I was going to befriend Ivy Snape, no matter what it took!

"I'm with you," Ron said when I told them my goal and I smiled, thinking that Ron finally wanted to actually make friends outside of Harry - Harry hadn't really spoken to anyone else outside of Ron, while I was already good friends with Neville, Cody, Tayla and Hermione - maybe best friends? I'd never had a best friend before… "Maybe Snape'll be nice to us if we're friends with his daughter." My smile disappeared and Hermione gasped.

"Ron! That's horrible! How can you use someone like that?" she cried.

"S'okay, I'm used to it," Ivy mumbled. "When people find out Dad doesn't treat them any nicer because of being my friends, they leave me. I actually think Dad can tell that they're using me so he's still horrible."

"I won't!" I said. "I know what it's like to be friendless! And hey, at least if a guy breaks your heart, your dad can guarantee him a slow, painful death," I grinned to Ivy, who smiled.

"By chopping him into Potions ingredients," Hermione added and Ivy actually let out a small giggle.

"I'll have to tell him that one," she smiled. "You're alright, Tess and Hermione."

"Wow, Hermione, I didn't think you had that in you!" I said and Hermione flushed with a smile and went back to eating. I mentally cheered triumphantly; I was well on the way to making friends with Ivy. Eventually, the desserts disappeared and Professor Dumbledore stood up again.

"Now that we are all full, I have a few announcements I'd like to make. The forest on the edge of the grounds is forbidden, as our older students should know." His eyes twinkled in the direction of Fred and George, who grinned.

"The caretaker, Mr Filch, has asked me to remind you that no magic should be used in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will take place in the second week of term - contact your house Quidditch Captain if you wish to try out.

"And finally, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to all who do not wish to die a painful death."

Harry laughed but my eyes widened and I turned to Percy.

"He can't be serious, can he?" I demanded. What sort of a headmaster would keep a deadly corridor in a school? And why would he tell us? I could think of certain kinds of people who would think of that as an invitation to explore it.

"Well, he must be," Percy frowned. "But I do think he'd have told us prefects why at least - I think we're entitled to an explanation."

"Now, let us sing the school song!" Professor Dumbledore announced and I snorted to myself when I saw the faces of the other teachers. Professor Dumbledore flicked his wand and golden, snake-like words flew out.

"Pick a tune and sing along!"

And the school roared:

_"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

_Teach us something please,_

_Whether we be old and bald_

_Or young with scabby knees,_

_Our heads could do with filling_

_With some interesting stuff,_

_For now they're bare and full of air,_

_Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

_So teach us things worth knowing,_

_Bring back what we've forgot,_

_just do your best, we'll do the rest,_

_And learn until our brains all rot."_

Everyone finished at different times and finally, only Fred and George were left, singing to a funeral march. Professor Dumbledore conducted the rest of the song with his wand and was one of the loudest applauders at the end.

"Ah, music! What a magic!" he beamed, tears in his eyes. "Well, off to bed you trot!"

I stood up immediately and all of the Gryffindor first-years followed Percy out of the Great Hall and up marble staircase after marble staircase. Harry and I were far too tired to realise that the portraits moved and whispered to each other as we passed and that Percy led us through two secret passages behind tapestries - we saw them doing it but it just didn't sink in. Just as I was wishing that we could climb into bed, we stopped. Ahead, some walking sticks were floating.

"Peeves," Percy said. "He's a poltergeist." He raised his voice. "Show yourself, Peeves!"

A rude sound appeared, like someone blowing a raspberry.

"Do I need to go to the Bloody Baron?"

With a pop, a man wearing a wicked grin appeared in mid-air.

"Ooooh! Ickle firsties! What fun!" he squealed and swooped at us but we ducked.

"Go away or I'll tell the Baron!" Percy barked. Blowing another raspberry, Peeves disappeared and the walking sticks fell on me and Neville, making us cry out.

"You'll want to watch out for Peeves," Percy said as we set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one that can control him - not even we prefects can. He's even disrespectful to the headmaster, though not outright rude. Here we are."

We had stopped in front of a portrait of a very fat lady in a pink satin dress.

"Password?" she asked.

"Caput Draconis," Percy answered and the painting swung forwards to admit them. We all climbed in - Hermione and I had to help Neville in - and we peered around in awe at the Gryffindor common room, which was full of red and gold hangings and squashy armchairs and couches. A warm fire crackled in the fireplace and overall, the room had a cosy feeling. I loved it!

Percy showed the boys and girls the entrance to their dormitories and I forced out a, "Goodnight," to Harry before following Hermione and Tayla up the spiral staircase to our dormitory, which had five four-poster beds with rich red hangings. Our trunks were already waiting for us and it was all Hermione, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown, Tayla and I could do to pull on our pyjamas and climb into bed.

"Goodnight," I murmured sleepily to Hermione and Tayla and they said goodnight back. I then fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning, had the feeling that I'd had a very odd dream, though I couldn't remember what it was.

**In the dream, for reference, Quirrell was there instead of Snape (I didn't write it because Tess didn't remember it) because Tess was looking at him when her scar hurt. She's not going to be all smart and figure it out but she will have her suspicions - I'm sure Harry only suspected Snape because Snape was a total git to him. **

**Who do you think the Hufflepuff was? Trust me, it's on the wiki so I'm not making things up :) Cookies to whoever guesses!**


	7. Professor Snape aka Slimy, Greasy Git

**Heh heh…I used chagrin in this chapter. The funny thing? Twilight abuses the hell out of it, so I'm kind of sticking it to that pile of dragon dung XD**

**Thanks to peaceoutpandas and Cookie05 for reviewing! And pandas, I forgot to write this in the review response but Tess is coming to kill you - you called her Tessa, remember? Expect her to show up at your house with a machete and Zora at around midnight :P **

**Anyway, here's the promised peace offering for you guys! Enjoy!**

"Look! Over there!"

"Where?"

"With that bushy-haired girl and the other three!"

"The one with the curly red hair?"

"Did you see her face?"

"What about her scar?"

That was the sort of thing that followed me the minute I stepped foot into the common room, much to my chagrin, and the same thing was happening to my brother. People who were lining up for class kept staring at us as we walked by or they'd double back, staring at us intently.

It made me feel really uncomfortable and I wished they wouldn't do it because I was trying to keep the map of Hogwarts from _Hogwarts: A History _in my head so I didn't get lost to classes. Hermione was far better in that regard.

Hogwarts was so strange: there were over a hundred moving staircases and some had a vanishing step, while others led somewhere different on certain days. And it wasn't just the stairs that could move; the portraits and suits of armour could too, so it was near impossible to know where you were sometimes, even if you had been in that spot earlier that day.

The ghosts weren't much help but Sir Nicholas was happy to point us where we needed to go if we ever got lost, though Peeves was annoying as hell; he'd drop bins on your head, pull rugs out from under you, throw chalk at you or, his favourite, creep up behind you, grab your nose and scream, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

When I learned one morning that Harry and Ron had accidentally tried to get into the forbidden corridor, I started giggling uncontrollably for a few moments.

'_You never change, Harry!' _I thought; half of the trouble he got into back at Privet Drive was totally unintentional.

Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, had me wanting to set Zora on her but I had to keep my friend up in the dorm, unless she was hunting - she'd easily be seen with me and I didn't want her to be killed or sent home.

Once we'd actually found our classes, Harry and I had quickly learned that magic wasn't just waving your wand and saying a few silly words. There was also a side to it that didn't involve your wand, like Astronomy, which we had every Wednesday night.

Three times a week, we had Herbology, which was essentially magical botany. We learned about different plants and what their uses were and though I was good at it, Neville was the best out of us (and the whole class), though he went pink and denied it whenever Tayla, Hermione, Cody and I told him so.

Our most boring class was History of Magic, which was interesting in the textbook but more boring than one of Aunt Petunia's soap operas in the actual class. You'd think being taught by a ghost would be exciting but he droned on and on, putting most of the class to sleep. Only Hermione could resist his voice and in exchange for lending me her notes, I'd help her with Charms.

Charms was my best subject and it was taught by Professor Flitwick, a tiny wizard who needed a stack of books to see over his desk. He started our first class by calling the roll and when he reached Harry's name, he squeaked excitedly but at mine, he actually fell off his books and Hermione and I had to run and help him up. In one of our classes, when I mastered Lumos on my first try, he looked at me with a strange expression and walked away, saying, "Lily!" under his breath.

_Er, Mum? Why's he saying your name like that? _I asked.

_Oh, Charms was my best subject too! _Mum said proudly.

Well, what do you know?

Harry and I had been right to think that it was suicide to annoy Professor McGonagall - she was very strict and as soon as we sat down for our first class, she gave us a lecture.

"Transfiguration is one of the most dangerous subjects you will be learning here and if I catch anyone messing around, they will be sent out for good," she told us and then turned her desk into a pig. We all gasped, eager to give it a try, until Professor McGonagall told us that we wouldn't be doing it for years. This was a far cry from the Professor McGonagall that had come to fetch me and Harry - I called it her 'professor mode'.

After copying down some complex-looking notes, Professor McGonagall had us turn matches into needles. Only Hermione, Cody and I accomplished it, though Cody managed it about five tries before me and Hermione three - Transfiguration just wasn't my forte and I preferred Charms. Professor McGonagall gave us a rare smile and two points each, making us beam proudly.

We had all been looking forward to Defence Against the Dark Arts but Professor Quirrell was, to put it plainly, a joke. His classroom stunk of garlic, which he claimed was to keep a vampire he'd met in Romania away in case it decided to come for him. He told us that his turban (which also smelt like garlic) was a present from an African prince when he'd rid him of a zombie but when Seamus asked our teacher how he'd done it, he turned pink and started mumbling nonsense.

"Today is an important day!" Harry announced to me on Friday at breakfast. "Ron and I have finally made it down here without getting lost!"

"Aww, good for you!" I cooed and patted Harry on the head mockingly. He glared at me and then turned to Ron.

"What do we have today?" he asked.

"Double Potions," Ron replied. "With the Slytherins."

"Terrific," I mumbled.

"Snape's their Head of House and apparently, he favours them," Tayla said, pouring syrup on her pancakes. "That's what I've been hearing around the school."

"It's true," Ivy told us - she was by no means warm to us but she didn't ignore us like she did everyone else. "He favours me and the Slytherins, so keep your heads down and don't cause trouble."

"Wish McGonagall favoured us," Harry sighed, making me roll my eyes. The mark of a good teacher was no bias but I was going to give Professor Snape the benefit of the doubt - after all, he used to be Mum's friend.

Suddenly, the mail came and I didn't jump and spill my drink like I did the first time it arrived when a hundred or so owls soared into the Great Hall, dropping packages and letters everywhere.

Hedwig hadn't brought us anything yet but she did come to have some of our bacon and nibble our ears before going to sleep in the Owlery. But this morning, she flew down to us with a letter and dropped it onto Harry's breakfast. Harry ripped it open and we read it together.

_Dear Harry and Tess,_

_I know you two get Friday afternoons off so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me at three?_

_I want to hear all about your week. Send an answer back with Hedwig._

_Hagrid_

Harry borrowed my spare quill to scribble a reply and give the letter back to Hedwig. I was glad that we had Hagrid to look forward to because Potions was simply horrible.

I got the impression at the feast that Snape hated Harry but apparently, he didn't really like me too. What had we ever done to him?

We traipsed down to the dungeons for Potions after breakfast and Snape, like Professor Flitwick, started by calling the roll and, like in Charms, he stopped at Harry's name.

"Ah - Harry Potter," he said in a soft voice. "Our new - _celebrity._" Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle sniggered and I rolled my eyes. He paused at my name to and looked up at me.

"And Tessa Potter too," he whispered. "Well, isn't this nice…" After that, he completely ignored me as he finished calling the roll and looked at us. His eyes were pitch black but, unlike Hagrid's warm ones, Snape's were icy cold. If I left out the hooked nose, warmed the cold eyes up a fraction, made his sallow skin pale and removed the greasiness from his hair, I felt like I was looking at a taller replica of Ivy.

_Thank God for two parents, _I thought and felt horrible at thinking that, though my guilt disappeared quickly enough.

"You are here to learn the wondrous and subtle art of potion-making," Snape said - like Professor McGonagall, he could keep everyone quiet without yelling at them but he had a totally different way of doing it.

"I don't expect many of you will understand the beauty of the simmering cauldron and the beautiful power of potions that creep through veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death…that is, if you aren't as big a group of idiots as I usually have to teach."

That was a wonderful speech until he ruined it by calling us idiots and I crossed my arms angrily, while Hermione sat on the edge of her seat, desperate to prove she wasn't an idiot, Tayla looked annoyed and Cody's eyes were wide.

_Sev! _Mum said angrily.

"Potter!" Snape snapped suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to wormwood?"

"Er - which one, sir?" Harry said tentatively.

"You," Snape hissed. "Now answer me!"

"I - I don't know, sir." Snape's lip curled.

"Clearly, fame isn't everything, is it, Mr Potter?"

He ignored Hermione's raised hand and turned to me.

"Now, let's see if the female Potter is smarter than her idiot brother," Snape said. "What is the answer, Potter?" I frowned, remembering back to the Potions book I had bought.

"It's - Draught of Living Death, isn't it, sir?" I said slowly, not sure I was right. I knew that I was when Snape's eyebrows raised a fraction and he turned to Harry.

"Where would you look for a bezoar?"

"I - I know it's got something to do with stomachs…" Harry said thoughtfully. Snape tutted and glared at me.

"A goat's stomach, sir?" I was starting to feel more confident, something I didn't think Snape liked very much.

"Now, why didn't you think to open a book like your sister before coming, Potter?" he snapped at Harry - I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, though it probably wasn't. I could hear Mum screaming in my mind and she was giving me a headache, though I didn't want to tell her to stop in case it showed and Snape found another reason to snap.

"What's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" At this, Hermione, whose hand had been up all this time, stood up, waving it desperately.

"I don't know but Tess clearly does," Harry replied smartly and I snorted mentally. Some people laughed and Snape said, "Well, if your dunderhead sister can answer me correctly, I see no reason why you can't. The answer?" He turned to me.

"The same plant and they also go by aconite," I said.

"Why aren't you copying that down?" he barked at the class and I was left to fume over how many points I would have won if Snape wasn't so biased. Over the noise, Snape took a point from Harry for his cheek.

_Oh, what has happened to you, Sev? _Mum wailed.

Things didn't get any better for us. Snape ordered us to make a potion to cure boils and I paired up with Tayla to do it, after tying my unruly hair up to keep it away from the ingredients - I had read that even a single hair could contaminate potions and render them utterly useless and wondered why Snape didn't tell us that.

Our potion wasn't acid green like it was meant to be but the shade of green was pretty close, though Snape just ignored it. I was pretty sure that I was far better when it came to the theory of potions, or maybe it was just Snape's teaching.

"I think we forgot to add an extra horned slug," I whispered to Tayla, who shrugged. "I read in my book that horned slugs are responsible for -"

"Do you think it'd matter to him?" Tayla interrupted. "He'd ignore you anyway, if not criticise you or possibly accuse you of cheating."

"I guess…" I said.

Just then, clouds of green smoke filled the dungeon - Neville and Seamus had somehow melted their cauldron and the ruined potion seeped across the floor, making everyone spring up onto their stools. Poor Neville, though, had been drenched in the potion and boils started popping up everywhere.

"Idiot!" Snape hissed, waving his wand to get rid of the potion. "You added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire, didn't you?" Neville just whimpered, while I glared at Snape for calling him an idiot.

"Potter, why didn't you warn him against adding those quills?" Snape spat at Harry, who had been working next to Neville with Ron. "Thought you'd look good if he failed? That's another point from Gryffindor thanks to you."

Harry opened his mouth to protest but I saw Ron kick him and whisper something. I was tempted to tell Snape that Harry had been focusing on his own potion but I knew I'd lose points if I did so.

As we left Potions, my head was whirling. Harry had already lost two points and Snape hated him and disliked me at best - but why? I heard Ron trying to cheer Harry up about the points and asking if he could come with us to see Hagrid.

"Any of you want to come to Hagrid's?" I asked Hermione, Cody and Tayla.

"I don't know if I should…" Hermione said doubtfully. "I mean, Ron Weasley will be there and I don't think he likes me very much!"

"Well, he can't really pick on you with Hagrid there," Cody pointed out. "He doesn't seem like the sort of person to let something like that happen."

"Crap!" Tayla cursed. "I just remembered - I haven't gotten any of my homework done yet!" And she ran off, her dark brown hair streaming behind her.

"I'd better go help her," Cody said in resignation and hurried after her.

"So, what about it?" I said to Hermione. "You can't leave me there with just Harry and Ron!"

"Well…alright," Hermione smiled. At five to three, Hermione and I left the castle and caught up to Harry and Ron at Hagrid's, which was on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

"What's _she _doing here?" Ron said, looking at Hermione.

"I invited her," I said frostily as Hermione looked down. "You know, like Harry invited you." Before Ron could say anything, Harry knocked on the door and we heard a scrabbling noise from inside before Hagrid's loud voice said, "Back, Fang, back!"

Hagrid's hairy face appeared in the crack of the door and he told us to hang on a second while he took care of 'Fang', whatever it was - turns out it was just a big black dog.

"Make yerselves at home," Hagrid told us as we looked around at the meat hanging from the ceiling and giant bed in the corner. He let go of Fang's collar and the dog went straight for Ron and started licking his ears.

While Hagrid prepared the tea and put rock cakes on a plate, Harry and I introduced our best friends and Hagrid knew straight away that Ron was a Weasley - I was betting it was either the red hair or the freckles.

The rock cakes were pretty much just that - rocks. But the four of us pretended that we liked them while we told Hagrid about our first week. Hermione started going on a long rant about all her favourite subjects (which was all of them) and how fascinating magic was.

"It is, isn't it?" Hagrid smiled at her. "I remember bein' as excited as yeh when I firs' came ter Hogwarts…'course, I wasn' Muggle-born, so it wasn' as excitin' fer me as fer yeh but I'm glad yer enjoyin' yerselves."

Harry, Ron and I were delighted when Hagrid called Filch an old git and I suspected that even Hermione was amused, though she looked stunned that Hagrid could criticise a member of authority.

"And as fer Mrs Norris, I'd like her ter meet Fang one day. Yeh know, every time I go up there, she follows me around - can' shake her off. Reckon Filch puts her up ter it."

Harry told Hagrid about our Potions lesson but Hagrid, like Ron, told us not to worry about Snape and that he hardly liked anyone.

"But he seemed to _hate _me!" Harry protested. "And he didn't like Tess much either!"

"Rubbish! Why should he hate the two of yeh?" But Hagrid didn't meet our eyes when he said this and he (rather obviously) changed the subject to Ron's brother Charlie. While they chatted, I picked up a newspaper clipping from the _Daily Prophet:_

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST!_

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier the same day._

"_But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out of you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon._

'_Tess! Ron told me on the train that someone broke into Gringotts!' _Harry told me and my eyes widened a fraction.

"But isn't that your birthday?" Hermione gasped to me, pointing to the clipping.

"And we were in Diagon Alley on that day!" I nodded. "In fact, I'm fairly certain that _we're _the ones who emptied the vault!" Hermione and I looked at each other, the dots connecting, while Harry grilled Hagrid on the break-in and Hagrid awkwardly avoided the question.

As the four of us returned to the castle with our pockets full of rock cakes we hadn't had the heart to refuse, I was hard in thought about the mysterious package and its location and I knew that Harry was thinking the same thing.

'_Ok, that's enough brooding for now!' _I said brightly.

"Hypocrite," Harry muttered, making Ron and Hermione jump. I grinned cheekily at my brother, who stuck his tongue out in reply, and we traded insults in our mind.

"What are they doing?" Ron said to Hermione in bewilderment, forgetting that he couldn't stand her.

"Oh, we have a telepathic connection," I shrugged.

"Which she always uses to annoy me!" Harry said, pointing at me. Ron and Hermione stared at us.

"Bloody hell," Ron finally said at the same time as when Hermione said, "Wow! How fascinating!"

**Yes, I had Snape hate Tess this time around. My reasoning for him hating a Lily look-alike would be that she would taunt him with what he could never have and she'd look exactly like a dead woman he loved, so of course he would despise her.**


	8. Harry, you're the biggest git ever!

**What can I say? I'm so sorry! I'm just getting into other things as well as HP, along with schoolwork and my job…all I can say is sorry. **

**And I just read yet another story with bad grammar which really annoyed me. How many writers here actually use good grammar as opposed to those ones with appalling grammar? It drives me **_**insane! **_**That's what beta readers are for! Why even post in English if you know you're not a good speaker of it? And if you're natively English…where the hell were you in kindergarten English and grammar?**

…**Sorry for that. It just makes me so **_**mad! **_**But the funny thing is, when I told them I had bad grammar, they replied and when I wrote back with a bit of an acid tongue, they blocked me and **_**then **_**hammered me with insults XD Chicken…can't even take a teenage girl's barbs…**

**Anyway, here's your chapter!**

Until meeting Draco Malfoy, I'd thought that Dudley Dursley would be the one boy I hated the most. But while Dudley just threw temper tantrums and got whatever he wanted, Malfoy actually expected us to bow down and respect him simply because of his status. Even Dudley wasn't that arrogant.

Luckily, we only had Potions with the Slytherins but that all changed when we saw a notice in the common room - we had flying lessons on Thursday and, of all our rotten luck, we were learning with the Slytherins.

"Did I ever mention my fear of heights?" Hermione squeaked.

"We'll be fine," I said reassuringly. "They can't let anything happen to us…right?" I was unsure because wizards didn't seem to view safety as particularly important - maybe it was because they could just heal anything in a heartbeat.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was liable to snap if I heard the words 'Quidditch', 'broom' or 'flying' one more time. Everyone had been telling grand stories of their adventures on brooms (slightly embellished) and I was sick to death of hearing how fun flying was.

Neville's grandmother had never let him on a broom in his life but I privately agreed with her - poor Neville was so accident-prone on the ground that I didn't want to begin to imagine the accidents he'd have in the air.

Hermione was so nervous at doing something that she couldn't learn out of a book that she borrowed _Quidditch Through The Ages _from the library and read out random facts at breakfast on Thursday. When I saw the irritation on Harry's face, I gently told Hermione to stop and sit down.

"You're just making us more nervous," I said. Hermione immediately started to apologise and I had to then get her to stop. She did stop when the mail arrived and Neville got a glass ball full of smoke from a barn owl, which turned out to be a Remembrall.

"Gran knows I'm really forgetful!" Neville said. "If you've forgotten to do something, the smoke will turn red…" Sure enough, the smoke inside turned scarlet. "Only problem is, it doesn't tell you what you've forgotten!"

While Neville was trying to jog his memory, Malfoy passed by and snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. Harry and Ron jumped up and I fingered my wand but Professor McGonagall, who seemed to have an eye for trouble, was there in a flash.

"What's going on here?" she demanded.

"Malfoy has Neville's Remembrall," Tayla piped up. Scowling, Malfoy dropped it, muttered an excuse about looking at it and skulked off with Crabbe and Goyle.

At half-past three that afternoon, we Gryffindors quickly descended the steps into the grounds for our first ever flying lesson. The Slytherins were already waiting for us near twenty brooms in two lines on the ground. Fred and George had been heard complaining loudly that they vibrated if you flew too high and some even leaned left slightly.

"What are you waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked when she arrived. She had short grey hair and eyes as yellow as a hawk's - I knew Zora would have been on edge if she'd been here. "Pick a broomstick and stand next to it! Quickly, now!"

Looking down at my broomstick, my fears weren't exactly alleviated by the mess of twigs in the tail and the knobbly stick as the seat.

"Hold your right hand out and say up!"

"UP!" we all shouted.

Harry's broomstick shot into his hand, making me blink in surprise. His was one of the very few that did jump up - Hermione and Cody's just rolled over, mine made a shaky sort of wobble as if to rise but didn't, Tayla's stopped halfway and then fell and Neville's didn't even move at all.

'_Maybe they can sense if you're scared or not,' _Harry theorised.

'_Wow, Harry…that was actually smart!'_

'_Oh, shut it.'_

Once we had our brooms in our hand, Madam Hooch taught us how to mount them and then started to correct everyone's grips. Tayla and I exchanged gleeful looks when she told Malfoy that he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"When I blow my whistle, kick off from the ground," Madam Hooch instructed. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, hover for a moment and then lean forward slightly to come down. On my whistle - three - two -"

But Neville was so jumpy that he kicked off before Madam Hooch had blown her whistle.

"Come back!" Madam Hooch shouted but Neville was continuing to rise and when he got to twenty feet, my fingers were crossed very tightly and I was murmuring things under my breath, hoping that he wouldn't fall, but I had the worst of luck.

WHAM. When he landed on the ground, I sprinted over and knelt down next to him.

"Are you ok?" I said, gently helping him up and keeping my arms around him to hold him up. He nodded through his tears, clutching at his left wrist.

"Broken wrist," Madam Hooch muttered, leaning over my shoulder to look at Neville. "You, Miss Potter - come with me to the hospital wing with him." I nodded and Madam Hooch turned to face the class.

"All of you leave those brooms where they are while Miss Potter and I take this boy to the hospital wing, or you'll be out of here before you can say Quidditch. Come on."

I gently pulled Neville in the direction of the castle and we hobbled off together, Madam Hooch ahead of us. When we got to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey immediately took Neville off us and shooed us out and I followed Madam Hooch back down to the grounds, where I noticed someone missing.

"Where is Mr Potter?" Madam Hooch asked. Everyone started talking at once but Madam Hooch held her hand up for silence and pointed at Hermione, who immediately began to talk.

"Well, Malfoy noticed Neville's Remembrall on the ground and stole it, and Harry followed him into the air and caught the Remembrall when Malfoy threw it and Professor McGonagall saw him and took him."

Madam Hooch didn't look very pleased (and I was absolutely stunned) but all the same, she carried on with the lesson. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually wasn't all hopeless on a broom - sure, I wasn't about to do any crazy stunts but I could definitely get around on a broom if I needed to.

"Did he really fall for Malfoy's stupid trick?" I said incredulously when the lesson was over.

"Yep," Tayla replied.

"Oh, if he's gotten himself expelled already, so help me…" And I started muttering under my breath, until Cody pointed out that they'd most likely just give him detention and wouldn't expel him over something like that.

At dinner, I heard Harry and Ron talking and my mouth fell open when I heard that Harry, far from being punished, had actually made the Quidditch team! I got up and walked over to them.

"You're kidding, right?" I said when I was standing behind them.

"No!" Harry said happily, eating a forkful of pie. "Youngest Seeker in a century! My training starts next week but don't tell anyone - Wood wants to keep it a secret." My eyebrows raised and a mixture of pride and annoyance swirling inside me, I slipped into a seat between him and another Gryffindor.

Fred and George entered the hall and ran over to Harry.

"Good work!" George said quietly. "Wood told us about it. We're Beaters on the team."

"That Quidditch Cup is ours for sure," Fred added. "We haven't won in a bit but you have to be good, Harry - Wood was almost skipping when he told us." The twins excused themselves and just as they disappeared, three very unwelcome people showed up.

"Having your last meal here, Potter?" Malfoy drawled. "When are they sending you home on the train?"

"You're a lot braver on the ground with Crabbe and Goyle, aren't you?" Harry said coolly. I could tell that the boys were just itching for a confrontation but with a table full of teachers watching, there wasn't a lot they could do.

"I'd take you on any time you wanted," Malfoy said. "How about tonight? Wizard's duel - wands only. You ever heard of a wizard's duel before?"

"Of course he has," Ron jumped in. "I'm his second. Who's yours?"

"Crabbe," Malfoy replied after sizing up his friends. "We'll meet you in the trophy room at midnight." And he disappeared with his friends.

"What the heck have you gotten Harry into?" I demanded. "What is a second, anyway?"

"Well, a second takes over if you die," Ron shrugged, resuming the eating of his dinner. When he saw the looks on our faces, he hurriedly went on, "But they're only needed in a real wizard's duel. I doubt he could do anything to Harry apart from shoot sparks at him. Besides, I bet he expected you to refuse, Harry."

I clenched my fists, struggling not to strangle Ron for getting my brother into this, when Hermione's voice said, "Excuse me." I looked up to see her with Cody - Tayla was still eating and Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing.

"Now we can't even eat in peace?" Ron complained. Hermione ignored him but my fists turned white.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you and Malfoy were talking about -"

"Bet you couldn't," Ron muttered. I practically shot sparks out of my eyes.

"- and you really mustn't be out of bed at night, Harry! Just imagine all the points you'll lose when you're caught! It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," Harry said, making me stare at him in shock. I expected that from Ron but _Harry_, of all people?

"Please don't do this, Harry," Cody said. "What Hermione's trying to say is that she's worried about how much trouble you'll be in, especially after today."

"Goodbye," Ron said.

"Goodbye yourself," I hissed, standing up and storming out of the hall. How could Harry do this? He knew that it was wrong but was he really that desperate for friends that he'd resort to going along with everything Ron said? I had plenty of friends and I didn't mind sharing - after all, we always shared back at the Dursleys.

"_How _anyone can be so rude is beyond me!" Hermione huffed. "I was just trying to help!"

"Well, Ron Weasley doesn't like know-it-alls," I said. "I think he's just jealous…_what do you think, Mum?' _I added silently. But there was no reply and I chose to interpret it as a confirmation, if only to make myself feel better.

At eleven thirty that night, I forced myself to get out of bed and pull on my dressing gown - if I couldn't stop the boys, I could at least make sure they didn't kill themselves. When I got downstairs, I saw them just coming down the staircase from their dormitory.

"Tess? What're you doing?" Harry hissed.

"Since I can't persuade you that this is a stupid idea, the least I can do is stop you from killing yourselves," I muttered. "You'd better be grateful - I'm giving up my beauty sleep for this."

"No one asked you to come!" Ron said. "I don't even want you along!"

"Ron!" Harry said. "Don't talk to my sister like that!"

"It's fine," I said, trying not to let my hurt show. I turned to go back up the stairs but Harry caught my wrist and pulled me back down.

"_I _want her along," he said, making me smile softly at him. Just as we were about to leave the common room, a voice said, "I can't believe you're really going to do this."

A lamp turned on to reveal Hermione with a dressing gown and a frown.

"Go back to bed!" Ron said angrily.

"I almost told Percy about this suicide mission!" Hermione said. "He'd put a stop to this! And Tess, how can you go along with them?"

"Because I know I can't convince them otherwise," I said. "I would prefer my brother in one piece." I noticed Ron's face darken when I didn't mention him but really, what did he expect? It wasn't like there weren't any feelings lost between us.

But Hermione was stubborn and refused to give up.

"Don't you boys care about Gryffindor?" she hissed, following us out of the common room. "I guess you want Slytherin to win the House Cup, don't you? You'll lose all the points Professor McGonagall gave me and Tess for knowing about Switching Spells!"

"Go away," Ron said.

"Don't be rude," I said in the same tone of voice.

"Don't say we didn't warn you," Hermione said. "I just hope you won't let Tess get into trouble when you get caught just because she was trying to help you and you're so -"

But the boys never found out what Hermione thought of them - she'd turned back to the portrait of the Fat Lady but she'd gone on a little visit, leaving us locked out of the tower.

"Now what am I going to do?" Hermione wailed.

"That's your problem," Ron said. "Come on, Harry, we're going to be late."

But Hermione caught up with us at the end of the corridor.

"I'm coming," she said.

"No you're not!"

"If you really think I'm going to stand here and let Filch catch me, you've got another thought coming! I'll tell him that Tess and I were trying to stop you two and Tess will back up my story."

"Yeah, I will," I nodded.

"You both have some nerve -" Ron began but Harry shut him up, saying he heard something, and then I heard it. It was a sort of snuffling noise and we froze, thinking it was Mrs Norris, but it wasn't - it was Neville, who woke up suddenly when we got nearer.

"Neville!" I said in delight and hugged him.

"Oh, I'm so glad you found me!" he said as I helped him up. "I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the password to get back in!"

"It's pig snout but the Fat Lady's gone on a little visit so it's no use," I replied. "How's your arm?"

"It's fine," Neville said. "Madam Pomfrey was able to fix it in a moment."

"That's great," Harry said. "Look - we have to be somewhere, so we'll see you later -"

"No!" Neville cried. "Don't leave me here alone! The Bloody Baron's passed me twice already!"

Ron looked at his watch and then gave me, Hermione and Neville furious looks.

"If we get caught, I'm going to learn the worst hex I can and use it on you!" he threatened.

"Knowing your spellwork, it'll probably be something like Lumos," I said nastily. When Ron went to reply, Harry shushed all of us and beckoned for us to follow him.

We crept along the corridors and every time we turned a corner, we tensed, expecting Filch or Mrs Norris to jump out and bust us, but we were lucky. When we got to the trophy room, we saw that Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet and my eyes narrowed. They'd done exactly what Hermione, Cody, Tayla and I had thought they'd do - not bothered to show up to get us in trouble.

Staying along the walls with our wands out, we edged through the room with the glimmering trophy cases, keeping our eyes peeled for Malfoy. In the next room, we heard a noise and we jumped and whirled around.

"Sniff around, my sweet," an oily voice said. "They could be hiding in a corner."

'_It's Filch!' _I thought to Harry. His eyes wide, he waved at us to follow him and when we were halfway down a corridor full of suits of armour, Neville suddenly squeaked and started to run. He tripped, grabbing me around the waist in an effort to stop his fall, and we crashed right into a suit of armour - the resulting noise could probably have woken the dead.

"RUN!" Harry shouted and the five of us bolted down the corridor, not bothering to see if we were being followed or not. Without any idea of where we were or any particular destination in mind, we hurtled through corridors and through a tapestry, ending up in a hidden passageway near the Charms classroom, which we knew was far away from the trophy room.

"I think we've lost them," Harry panted, leaning against the wall and mopping his sweaty brow. I leaned against him and the others were bent over, wheezing and panting.

"We - told - you," Hermione gasped, holding her chest.

"We have to get back to Gryffindor Tower," Ron said.

"No duh," I rolled my eyes.

"You do realise that Malfoy was never going to come to the duel, don't you?" Hermione added. "Filch seemed to know that we'd be there."

"Malfoy must have tipped him off," I concluded.

In Harry's mind, I could see that he knew we were right but he wasn't going to admit it. I smirked at him and thought, _'Boys,' _but out loud, I said that we'd better go.

But the universe was determined to hate us because a few doors down, something shot out of a classroom and squealed happily - it was Peeves.

"Please, Peeves, be quiet!" I begged. "We'll be expelled!"

"Going on a little midnight stroll, ickle firsties?" Peeves cackled. "Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, please!" Harry pleaded.

"Should tell Filch for your own good," Peeves said in a mock-angelic voice.

"Move it!" Ron snapped and swiped at Peeves, which turned out to be a he mistake.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves hollered. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

We sprinted past Peeves and ran for our lives but when we got to the end of a corridor, we crashed into a door, which just happened to be locked.

"We're done for!" Ron cried. "This is the end!"

"Oh, move over," I snarled over Filch's footsteps, which were getting closer. I pulled out my wand and used Alohomora and Hermione looked like she was mentally hitting herself for not thinking of it. When the door unlocked, we piled inside and slammed it shut before listening closely.

"Where'd they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Tell me!"

"Say please."

"Don't mess around, Peeves! Where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," Peeves sang.

"Ok - _please_."

"NOTHING! Ha haaaaa! Told you I won't say nothing if you didn't say please!" We heard Peeves zoom away and Filch curse angrily and I grudgingly admired Peeves's play on words. Neville pulled on my dressing gown sleeve and I turned to see what he wanted, only to freeze, the blood rushing from my face.

"He thinks the door's locked," Harry said.

"And for good reason," I squeaked and the others turned around to see what had me and Neville so scared - a giant three-headed dog that hadn't attacked us yet but only because we'd surprised it. I knew exactly what those warning growls meant.

"I think we now know why the third-floor corridor's forbidden," I said, still in a squeak. Harry turned around and scrabbled for the doorknob, thoughts flying around in his head, and we fell out of the room suddenly. Harry slammed the door shut and we took off, not stopping until we'd made it to the Fat Lady.

"Where on earth have you been?" she asked, taking in our appearance.

"Never mind - pig snout," I wheezed and when the portrait opened, we jumped into the common room and fell into armchairs, shaking like leaves.

Ron was the first one of us to speak.

"What're they doing, keeping a dog like that in a school?" he said.

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione snapped. "Didn't any of you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested.

"I think we were too focused on the heads," I said quietly.

"It was standing on a trapdoor!" Hermione said. "Obviously, it must be guarding something!" Hermione stood up, glaring at Harry and Ron, and I copied her a moment later.

"I hope you're quite happy," Hermione said. "We could have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed before you think of another way to get us killed." And Hermione and I stormed upstairs.

"I think you need to get your priorities straight," I said as we opened our dormitory door. Hermione blushed.

"I was flustered," she said. "Anyway, goodnight."

"Goodnight," I replied but I didn't go to sleep. Instead, I lay awake and stroked Zora's scales, thoughts and theories swirling around in my head. The dog was guarding something and Hagrid had fetched something from Gringotts, which was said to be the safest place in the world to guard stuff.

I was sure I knew where the package from vault seven hundred and thirteen had gone.

**Before I get yelled at and saying that Tess is a Mary Sue because she thought of Alohomora and Hermione didn't, I think of the girls as equal in intelligence, just in different ways. When it comes to exams, books and homework, I feel that Hermione is better than Tess in that regard, though they both get good marks. But in the heat of the moment, when it's time for action rather than analysis, I think Tess is better than Hermione (like Harry).**

**Random thought #39: Why is it Mary Sue-ish to name your OC something exotic like Sapphire or Kristal when half the HP characters have weird names like Albus, Severus, Cassiopeia, Druella, Walburga, etc. and Dumbledore has five names (APWBD)?**


	9. A worse smell than Dudley's socks?

**Boy, was I busy: I had a French assignment due on the fifteenth of March and then my PDHPE, Food Tech and Science ones were all due before and after the Easter weekend, which I was working over. Phew! Year 10 is really busy!**

**Also, I'm trying to write my own novel. So far, I have a very basic plot and I'm working on fleshing out the characters. I can't say anything about the plot now without giving anything away but novel writing is way harder than it sounds!**

**Thanks to flowers-and-rainbows-123, Cookie05 and dumbles13 for reviewing!**

The look on Malfoy's face the next morning when he saw that Harry and Ron hadn't been expelled was priceless. That almost made the adventure worthwhile.

Almost.

Hermione and I were refusing to speak to Harry and Ron and instead, occupied our time with homework and trying to figure out what the package the dog was guarding might be.

"It's either valuable or dangerous," Tayla concluded. "Why else would they lock it up in a safe place?"

"Or it could be both," I shrugged. All we knew for sure was that it was about two inches long and without any other clues, we had more chance of finding a needle in a haystack than finding out what the thing was.

Neville, for one, didn't care about what was under the dog and so we didn't talk about it whenever he was around.

A week after our adventure, at breakfast, six owls flew into the hall with a long, thin package. I wondered who it was for and when it was dropped in front of Harry, I raised my eyebrows. When he read the note, I let myself into his mind and read it through my eyes and when I pulled out, I had mixed feelings.

"It's a broomstick," I told my friends.

"What? But it's against the rules for first-years to have them!" Hermione said, shocked.

"Obviously, they made an exception for him," Tayla said enviously.

"Oh yeah, because that'll really convince Snape that we're not above the rules," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "What next, having me graduate from Hogwarts in my first year?"

When Harry and Ron left the Great Hall, Hermione and I followed while Tayla and Neville stayed behind to eat some more food.

"That's a broomstick," we heard Malfoy's voice say in the Entrance Hall. "You're in for it now, Potter! First-years aren't allowed to have broomsticks."

"It's not just a broomstick, Malfoy," Ron said. "It's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What do you have, a Comet Two Sixty? Comets are cool but Nimbuses are way above them."

"What would you know, Weasley? You wouldn't be able to afford the handle," Malfoy snapped. "You and your brothers must have to save up for each twig."

Wishing that if they were going to have a confrontation to at least come up with better insults, I was about to step out when Professor Flitwick intervened.

"Not fighting, boys?" he said.

"Potter's got a broomstick, Professor," Malfoy said quickly.

"Yes, Professor McGonagall did tell me about the special circumstances, Mr Potter. What model is it?"

"A Nimbus Two Thousand. And it's really thanks to Malfoy that I'm allowed it," my brother said and he and Ron climbed the stairs. The look on Malfoy's face was priceless but Hermione and I weren't in a very good mood. My mood worsened when I heard Harry saying happily, "It's true! If Malfoy hadn't pulled that stunt, I'd never have made the team this year…"

"So you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?" Hermione said angrily as we stalked up to them.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us," Harry said.

"Please don't stop, it's doing us a world of good," Ron added. Hermione stormed off but I paused to say something to my brother.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you'd put someone above your own sister," I hissed. Harry motioned for Ron to go on ahead and then he whirled around, furiously.

"Ever since that train ride, you've been nothing but uptight!" Harry said. "You don't like Ron but I'm fine with your friends! And now that I've finally beaten you at something, you're mad at me!"

"It's not the fact that you're on the team!" Harry's words had struck a nerve, partly because he was half-right. I didn't like the fact that he was better than me at something. "It's how you went about getting on it! And then dragging us off last night -"

"I never asked for you to come!" Harry shouted.

"You should've known that I'd never let you walk off into something like that without me! Back at Privet Drive, we did everything together!"

"Well, why don't you like Ron?"

"Because he's so rude to me and Hermione! Didn't you hear him back there?" Before Harry could say something else, I said the one thing I knew would get to him.

"Remember all those times we were bullied by Dudley? You've become the very thing we hated." Harry looked as if I'd hit him in the face. "Since when have we ever said something nasty to someone who didn't deserve it?"

"What do you see in Hermione anyway?" Harry blustered. "You're always with her and those others - I can't remember the last time we hung out!"

"What do you see in Ron?" I shot back. "On that train, he gawked at our scars and he was actually cheered up about our home life! At least Hermione wasn't a fan-girl! And I refuse to hang out with you while Ron is around to insult me and make me feel like a good-for-nothing know-it-all!"

"Well, Hermione made him feel like an idiot on the train!" Harry said.

"Ok, so granted she could have gone about that differently," I conceded. "But she was excited! Remember what I was like when we started school?"

Dudley hadn't even had to scare anyone away from me, since I'd done that all by myself. I'd gone on and on about all the different books I'd read and I'd driven all the girls away. I specifically remembered that on the Potter Channel (as we called it) so that Harry could see it too and his face changed.

Mum chose that moment to intervene.

'_This is childish and stupid, Harry and Tessa! Apologise to each other now!'_

"I'm sorry, Tessie," he said quietly, making me sigh.

"I'm sorry too, Harry." We hugged and then we were best friends again.

"I'll tell Ron to lay off you and Hermione if you tell Hermione to leave us alone," Harry compromised and I nodded.

"That sounds fair. And I am really proud of you being on the team, I just don't like that you were rewarded for breaking a rule that should have gotten you expelled."

"You want me expelled?" Harry pretended to be hurt.

"Harry!" I punched him on the arm. "You know that's not what I meant!"

That day, Harry's mind drifted to his broomstick so often that I ended up hitting him mentally whenever it happened. At dinner, I told my friends that we'd had an argument and I wanted to sit with Harry (he did have a point - we hadn't spent time together in ages) and they were fine with it, though Hermione didn't look very happy.

"We've come to an agreement," I said to her. "If you lay off them, Harry said he'll try and get Ron to lay off us."

"Ok," Hermione said reluctantly. "But if Ron starts on us, I want to be able to fight back!"

"If he insults us, the deal is off," I said. "Harry and I just don't want to force each other to choose between us and our friends - we'd pick each other for sure."

After dinner, Harry sprinted upstairs to unwrap his broom and I watched him with a smile. I would have gone as well but Ron the Quidditch fan was with him and if I said that I didn't care for the sport or unintentionally got something wrong or insulted it, the result wouldn't be pretty.

"He seems eager," Cody commented, sitting down next to be. "Why aren't you with him?"

"Ron," was all I said.

"Don't you guys have a truce?" Tayla said, sliding down the bench.

"I have a feeling that the truce doesn't extend to Quidditch," I said dryly. "Personally, I don't care for it but do you want to say that in front of him?"

"True," Tayla agreed.

-HP-TP-

The next day in Charms, I was bouncing. It was Halloween and I was already in a good mood from waking up to the smell of baking pumpkin (which Harry and I'd only had once in our lives and even then, Aunt Petunia slapped us for stealing) and then in Charms, we learned that we'd be making objects fly, which we'd been looking forward to ever since he'd made Trevor zoom around.

We were put into pairs and Harry was partnered with Seamus Finnigan, which made me grin. The boy had a knack for blowing things up and I didn't envy Harry having to work with him.

Tayla and Cody were paired up and I was ecstatic when Professor Flitwick put me with Neville. We often paired up in classes and I was always happy to help him (when he needed it - he was the one helping me in Herbology), something that Professor Flitwick picked up on.

But not all the news was great. Ron and Hermione were put together and Harry and I had a silent bet going on as to who would blow first and when. Harry and I still didn't like the other picking on our friends but if we were making fun of our own friends too, we didn't really mind.

'_I bet Hermione blows up first out of frustration when Ron can't do it,' _I challenged.

'_Well, I bet if Ron can't do it, he'll get frustrated when she tries to help,' _Harry shot back.

'_Five Galleons?'_

'_You're on.'_

We both shared our money, so it wasn't as if we'd actually win anything out of the bet, but it was fun anyway.

"Don't forget the swish and flick wrist movement we've practice!" Professor Flitwick said and guided us through it again. After that, we got to work.

Hermione, Cody and I shared a silent challenge through eye contact and then our feathers were rising into the air, though mine was a little faster than theirs.

"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick said. "Fifteen points to Gryffindor!"

"Don't feel down, Hermione, I'm just the best at Charms," I said up to her but she didn't look very happy.

"Hey, who's the only one who can stay awake in History?" Cody said from next to me and Neville. Hermione looked considerably happier after that.

'_Honey, you came across as a bit arrogant and boastful,' _Mum said.

'_Darn it!'_

"Sorry, Hermione," I apologised. Hermione accepted my apology, making me sigh in relief.

When Neville couldn't do the spell, I guided him through the wrist movement and pronunciation and he, along with Tayla, Harry (after getting a new, unscorched feather, of course), Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, won two points.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron shouted, waving his arms around.

"No, you're saying it completely wrong!" Hermione snapped. "It's Levi-_o _-sa, not Levi-o-_sar_!"

'_I win,' _Harry thought smugly, making me narrow my eyes at him.

"You do it, then, if you're so smart!"

"He did _not _just say that to Hermione Granger," Tayla grinned. Hermione primly rolled her sleeves up, swished and flicked her wrist and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The feather rose up for the second time that day and Professor Flitwick applauded.

"Can you do the spell again, Miss Potter?" he asked. Grinning, I repeated the spell and then Cody did and we had a three-way feather fight, prompting the professor to award us an additional five points each for our control.

"I love Charms!" I beamed when we left class.

"That was an awesome fight," Cody grinned and Tayla cheered and slapped him on the back.

"I can't believe the amount of control I had over the feather!" Hermione said proudly but her good mood was shot down when we heard the boys in front of us.

"Hermione's a nightmare!" Ron said. "It makes sense that she, Cody and Tess would hang out - they're such know-it-alls! Who'd want to be friends with them? Well, apart from weirdly-happy Tayla and that Neville, who's always sniffing about something or other. 'It's Levi-_o_-sa, not Levi-o-_sar_!' Can you believe the nerve of Hermione?"

Hermione pushed past, tears streaming down her face, and I saw red. While Cody ran after Hermione, Tayla and I stormed up to Harry and Ron and Neville hung back nervously.

"Ron, don't say that stuff about my sister!" Harry said angrily.

"So? She must've noticed she's got no friends apart from the weirdoes and know-it-alls," Ron said tactlessly. Breathing heavily, I pushed in front of Ron and punched him in the face.

"I can't believe you just said that, Ronald Weasley!" I snapped, tears forming. "So what am I, a weirdo or a know-it-all?" Luckily for him, Ron had the sense to shut up. "You know, Harry, even here we're freaks, losers who don't fit in! If we're not friendless and called freaky, we're gawked at by everyone and their brother! Didn't Harry tell you about our truce?"

"I did," Harry said in a furious voice. "Ron, Tess and I were bullied when we were younger and you're turning into a bully now - that's why Tess doesn't like you. And no wonder, after what you just said!" Ron just gaped at us.

"You want to know why Hermione and I get on so well?" I hissed. "It's because we're both so smart that everyone else can't compete and so they get jealous and call us names! I don't want you to ever speak to us again!" By the time I'd finished ranting, I was shrieking and then I stormed off with Tayla. If I'd looked back, I would have seen Neville shoot Ron a death glare but I only noticed him when he caught up to us.

"Did I miss anything?" I said furiously.

"No, you pretty much summed up everything I was thinking," Tayla said.

"If being a weirdo means I can be your friend, I'm happy to be one," Neville said cautiously and I turned to smile and hug him.

"Thanks, Neville. You're a great friend." Neville turned red.

"I'm a weirdo and proud of it," Tayla said. "I scared everyone off when I was little with all my accidental magic - Ruby didn't help."

'_At least Harry doesn't condone the bullying,' _Mum said in a tight voice and I had to agree.

The three of us wandered around aimlessly until we ran into Cody, who said he'd been looking for us.

"Hermione's crying her eyes out in the girls' bathroom," he said in a tight voice. "If I see that Ron Weasley…"

"Don't worry, Tess took care of that," Tayla said and I couldn't help but turn pink. "She punched him in the face." Cody stared at me for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"I almost…wish I'd…been there!" he forced out but then grew serious. "Come on, Hermione's this way."

"Neville and I will go back," Tayla said. "I want to keep an eye on Ronald, maybe guilt-trip him a bit."

"Lead the way," I said to Cody and we ran down the corridors to a bathroom, where I could hear someone sniffling.

"Hermione?" I called, pushing the door open.

"Go away," Hermione choked out.

"Hermione, I'm back with Tess," Cody said. "Tayla and Neville went to keep an eye on Ronald."

"If it makes you feel any better, Harry was furious as well," I said, sitting down next to the crying girl.

"It does," Hermione said. "A little…I didn't think he was the type to bully."

"Considering we were bullied, he's not," I said.

"I think he's torn between Tess and Ronald," Cody said. "Ronald's his first friend but Tess is his sister."

After that, we just sat in silence for a few hours, until I heard something. Frowning, I stood up.

"Can you two hear that?" I whispered.

"Hear what?" Cody frowned.

"That noise! Can't you hear it?"

"You could be hearing things," Hermione said but then shook her head. "No, I can hear it too!"

"What do you think's making the noise?" Cody said quietly, springing up.

"Whatever it is, it's getting louder," I said uneasily. Cody helped Hermione up and all three of us took out our wands. The sound grew louder and louder, until -"

"What _is _that?" I whispered, pointing at the doorway. Something huge was in it and when it moved forward, I saw that it was a humongous grey beast with a tiny head, ape-like arms and a large club.

"It's a troll!" Hermione and Cody cried together. As it moved into the bathroom, the three of us backed away, terrified out of our minds.

"Come on, we have to run!" I said but just as we were about to run around it, the door slammed shut and locked!

"No!" Hermione squeaked. As the troll raised its club, Hermione, Cody and I did pretty much the only thing one could do in our situation; we screamed our lungs out. But as we backed away, the door burst open and Harry, Ron and Tayla ran in, along with…Ivy? What was she doing here?

'_Don't worry about that now, Tessie!' _Mum screamed hysterically. _'Duck!' _I ducked, just avoiding the club that smashed half the stalls.

"Hey, pea-brain! Over here!" Tayla called and threw a piece of debris at it. It didn't seem like the debris had any effect but the troll certainly heard her and turned in her direction, handing Harry an opportunity to reach me, Cody and Hermione.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" he said and tried to pull us away but we were frozen in shock.

"DO YOU WANT TO DIE OR NOT?" Ivy screeched at us and threw something at the troll. When it went for her, she amazed us by climbing up on top of the stalls and leaping nimbly to each one as it was destroyed.

"How do you do that?" Tayla said.

"Years of practice! Nice to see you have your priorities straight!"

But when the troll turned to Tayla and Ron, effectively trapping them, Harry did probably the bravest and dumbest thing ever; he jumped and clung onto the troll's neck. That in itself wasn't what got the troll's attention; no, he'd somehow stuck his wand up the beast's nose and even a troll will notice if you stick something up its nose.

The troll danced around in pain, swinging its club, and I knew I would have sunk to the floor if not for Mum screaming bloody murder in my head; her shrieks varied from anger at Harry to fear for us and a hint of pride.

'_JAMES POTTER, YOU SHUT UP!' _I heard her screech and I knew that Dad had probably made a stupid remark. Strangely, that didn't surprise me.

"Do something, idiots!" Ivy said, leaping out of the way of the troll. Tayla tripped over a pipe and had to roll out of the way of the troll and Ron pulled out his wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Oh great, the one spell you can't actually do!" Tayla said hysterically, rolling away from the troll. But she was wrong; the club flew into the air and fell onto the troll's head with a crack. It swayed on the spot and then fell back, making Tayla dive out of the way to avoid being crushed.

Shaking, Harry stood up while Ron stared at the troll, his wand still in the air. Tayla was breathing heavily, her hazel eyes wide, Ivy had a mixture of expressions on her face and Cody, Hermione and I were still terrified.

"Is it dead?" I squeaked.

"No, I think Ron just knocked it out," Harry said and ran over to pull me up and embrace me tightly.

"I'm - I'm really sorry for all those things I said," Ron said awkwardly. "I was jealous of how smart you guys were…and I didn't feel very good after I failed at that spell on the train…"

"I'm sorry too," Hermione said in a small voice. "I shouldn't have been such a know-it-all."

"This is all very nice and sappy but can we get out of here before my dad comes and kills me?" Ivy said. Harry went to get his wand and I wrinkled my nose when I saw what it was covered in.

"Yuck!" Tayla wrinkled her nose. Just then, we heard a door slam and people running.

"Damn it!" Ivy swore. Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell burst into the bathroom and there were mixed reactions; Quirrell gasped and sank down to the floor, Snape locked eyes with Ivy and gave her a menacing glare, causing her to turn pale, and Professor McGonagall towered over Harry, Ron and Tayla.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" she said in a steel-cold voice. "You are all very lucky you weren't killed! Why are you here instead of Gryffindor Tower?"

"Please - they were looking for me," Hermione said in a small voice.

"Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall now noticed me, Hermione and Cody.

"I've read lots of books and I thought I'd be able to deal with the troll," Hermione continued. "Tess and Cody tried to talk me out of it but I was too stubborn -"

"Hermione, you know that's not true at all," Ivy interrupted. "Dad - er, Professor Snape - can sense liars from a mile away." She turned to Professor McGonagall. "What really happened, as far as I know, is that some boys were picking on Hermione and called her names, so she came here to cry and Cody and Tess came to comfort her. When they heard about the troll, Harry, Ron and Tayla dragged me along with them to save these three and we tried to lock it in but then we realised they were in here. We all distracted the troll and Ron used the Levitation Charm to knock it out with its club."

"Well then…" Professor McGonagall said. "Miss Granger, I am your Head of House for a reason. If you have any problems, any at all, you come to see me. I shall not punish you, Miss Potter or Mr Archer for being here, since you were in the wrong place at the wrong time -" Hermione breathed a sigh of relief "- however, I will take five points for lying to a teacher. You may go to Gryffindor Tower."

Hermione nodded and ran out of the bathroom.

"Now, as for you four," Professor McGonagall continued, turning to Harry, Ron, Tayla and Ivy, "next time there is a crisis such as this, you come and tell us if you know of any missing students! Five points each from Gryffindor." Harry nodded miserably.

"However, I think you all deserve five points each for sheer dumb luck!" Harry, Ron and Tayla exchanged delighted looks and Ivy looked close to smiling. "Miss Potter and Mr Archer, take five points each for loyalty to your friend. You may all return to your common room."

"I can't say I'm surprised," I muttered to Cody, Tayla and Ivy on the way to Gryffindor Tower. "Bad things always happen to us on Halloween."

"That was awesome!" Tayla said. "And we picked up some points, didn't we? I mean, sure we lost twenty five points but we got thirty!"

"That's only five points," Ivy pointed out.

"I don't think she wanted to award too many and encourage more adventures like this one," Cody said.

"You all owe me!" Ivy said. "Dad's going to _kill _me!"

"We'll make sure you get a nice tombstone," I teased, making Ivy narrow her obsidian eyes at me.

'_Boo yah! That's my boy and girl! Did you see that, James? Our kids just took on a troll!' _Mum was crowing. _'You never did anything that awesome when we were at school!'_

'_Mum, are you alright? Did you get knocked around in there?' _I thought concernedly.

'_I'm fine, sweetheart! You and Harry took on a troll! That's my babies!'_

Harry and I looked at each other and then burst out laughing, much to our friends' bewilderment. When we calmed down, we saw them looking at us strangely.

'_Oh, they deserve to know,' _I said.

'_Even Ron?' _Harry asked,

'_Even Ron.'_

'_Ok then.'_

Harry and I told them about our mental bond with our dead mother and when we'd finished, they kept staring at us. Tayla broke the silence.

"That's _awesome_!"

"That's pretty cool," Cody grinned.

"Bloody hell!" Ron said.

When we got back to Gryffindor Tower, we stood together awkwardly for a moment and then scurried off. Harry and Ron disappeared to find the food, Ivy went to…well, wherever she went, and Cody, Tayla and I went to find Hermione and Neville. But something changed that night and now Ron Weasley was our friend. And I'd succeeded in befriending Ivy Snape!

Mission accomplished!

**I've just realised that with Cody, there are six boys in the dorm. But before you guys start chasing me with flaming torches, JKR actually said that there were close to a thousand students at Hogwarts. Now, if you do the maths, you would come to 280 students, 70 per house. But the First War could have actually had more of an effect than you think and severely reduced the wizarding population. **

…**Wow, I surprised myself XD But anyway, it pretty much means you could have eight girls in a house in the same year if you wanted. If there were only 280 students, there wouldn't be much point to having a castle as a school.**


	10. Quidditch and My Impending Insanity

…**What can I say after updating over a month after the deadline? Life just got in the way. School has been pressuring me, along with work, work experience (which I just finished the other week - 8 hours a day for 5 days), and trying to write a novel when I flit from one idea to another. Oh, and did I forget to mention the Neighbour from Hell who was trying to get us evicted? She got the boot but in any case, we're moving in two weeks, which I'm looking forward to.**

**So I doubt that this chapter is up to scratch but…whatever. I really don't care. Thanks to Danielle, Tess, ZabuzasGirl, gleegirls23 and dumbles13 for bothering to review. If I miss someone, I apologise. Danielle, I will fix those things up right away, thanks for pointing them out.**

**And I forgot to mention my multiple health issues, didn't I? I won't go into detail but I'm so tired **_**all **_**the time and I don't know what the hell I'm allergic to!**

**Sorry about the rant but…you know, life was pretty crap when I wrote this chapter and I needed somewhere to vent. I s'pose I shouldn't complain, what with people out there having bigger problems, but I'm a whiner by nature. And no, I wasn't depressed, I'm just a pessimist by nature.**

It was the middle of November before Zora finally spoke to me again. When she'd learned about the troll incident, her response had been fury that I'd been in danger, hope that she could bite Ron and annoyance from being left behind. She'd refused to speak to me from then on, no matter what I did.

November also marked the start of the Quidditch season, where Harry would be playing his very first game against Slytherin. No one apart from the Gryffindor Quidditch team and me had seen him play, since Oliver Wood (the captain) wanted to keep him a secret, but everyone somehow found out anyway.

Harry was really happy to have Hermione and Cody as friends and to have me back on speaking terms, since now we could help him with his homework when Wood went overboard with the Quidditch practices. If it interfered too much with his homework, I'd even write out a whole essay and let him rewrite it in his own writing, so long as he understood what was being said. If he didn't get it, I'd help him understand it via our link.

Mum didn't seem too sure about writing an essay for him to copy but I used the reasoning that it was ok if he understood it and she eventually agreed. When Harry had a rare moment of free time, I even went to the library and borrowed _Quidditch Through the Ages _for him to read. He kept telling me random facts and I had to eventually threaten to sic Zora on him if he didn't shut up about Quidditch!

Hermione, Cody and I had relaxed our rigorous rule-following regime (indeed, I wondered why I even followed all those rules when I usually broke rules at Privet Drive and didn't trust any adults) and we were now all one big happy bunch of friends, though Ron and Hermione bickered frequently.

I was even starting to get along with the other girls in my dorm: Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. They were major girly-girls but now that Tayla was introducing me to the world of girliness (yes, Tayla, I know you're not as tough as you want us to believe!), I was now on good terms with them. Sometimes, I'd even sit with them in the common room and I helped them with homework they didn't understand - in exchange, they taught me about fashion, hair and make-up.

"Actually, this is kind of fun," I admitted one night in the dormitory while painting Lavender's nails. "I've never done this stuff before."

"You mean you've never had a girl friend to do this stuff with?" Parvati said incredulously.

"Not really," I admitted. "Our cousin was a bully." That was all I was comfortable enough with telling them but that was all they needed to know and we vowed to have massive makeovers every year when we returned to Hogwarts and when we ended.

I was trying to get Hermione into hanging with me and Tayla when we were with Parvati and Lavender but she said she was still uncomfortable with all the girly stuff and much preferred her books. I didn't push her but I couldn't help feeling that these makeovers would be much more fun with her around.

The day before Harry's first Quidditch match, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Cody and I were sitting in the frosty courtyard while Tayla was off with Ivy and Hermione had conjured bright blue flames for us to put in a jam jar. We were still cold, though, so I conjured my own flames, which were magenta.

Just then, we noticed Snape limping out to us and my eyes narrowed at his gait. We moved closer together to block the fire from his view, seeing as it was against the rules, but he saw our guilty faces and found a reason to tell us off anyway.

"You are not to take library books out of the school, Potter," Snape said, catching sight of _Quidditch Through the Ages_. "Give it to me and I think I will take five points from Gryffindor." He then noticed the flames behind our back. "Casting spells outside of class, eh? I think that's another five points, Miss Potter."

"That book rule was so made up!" Cody hissed angrily as Snape limped off. "There's nothing in the rules about it!"

"I wonder what's up with his leg?" Harry said.

"Dunno but I hope he's in massive pain," Ron said bitterly, making me crack a grin against my will.

"You know, Ron, you're alright," I said, making Ron smile and his ears turn pink.

-HP-TP-

That night in the common room, it was so loud that I was sure I was going to wake up with a headache in the morning. Hermione was checking Harry's Potions essay for him (I never let him copy anymore but we would check over it), while Cody read through Ron's. I wrote my Charms essay and Tayla scribbled out a letter home.

Harry was jumpy and his mind was whirling with thoughts of tomorrow and his confiscated book until at last, I snapped, "Go and get that damn book then!" When some Gryffindors looked at us, I grinned awkwardly and gave them a sheepish wave.

"I think I will go and get my book back," Harry said, standing up.

"Better you than us," we chorused. Harry gave us a look and disappeared. A couple of minutes later, I had finished my Charms essay and for fun, decided to peek into Harry's mind. What I saw nearly scarred me for life.

Harry had reached the staffroom and Snape and Filch were in there alone. Snape had his robes pulled up and Filch was on his knees. I was about to let out a piercing shriek and cleanse my mind when I noticed Snape's leg was bloody and let out a relieved sigh.

'_Tessie! You're too young for those thoughts!' _Mum scolded but she sounded amused. Harry, meanwhile, was mentally rolling around with laughter and I heard Mum tell Dad off for something, most likely for laughing as well.

'_James Potter, you will not encourage our daughter to think those thoughts, even if it is Severus!' _Mum said. There was a pause and then she added, _'It doesn't matter if she can't hear you! And no, no corrupting Harry either!'_

It was too much and I had to pull out of my mind, otherwise I would have burst out laughing uncontrollably and gained a reputation as a nut job. As it was, I let out a giggle and my friends stared at me weirdly.

"Mind stuff?" Tayla said and I nodded. "I don't want to know…"

"…I'm just going to go talk to Neville…" I said slowly, sliding away and sitting down next to Neville, who was a few tables away in the common room.

"Hi, Tess!" Neville said.

"Hey, Neville," I smiled. "You ok?"

"Not really," Neville sighed. "I don't get this Potions essay!"

While I was helping Neville with his essay, Harry came back and I got an image of a bloody leg, which I had seen briefly through his eyes. I gasped.

"What's up?" Neville said. I told him about the scene in the staffroom (leaving out my impending insanity, of course) and by the time I'd finished, I was breathless.

"This means that he could have trying to get past that three-headed dog at Halloween!" I said. "Harry told me about Snape going to the third floor when he, Ron, Ivy and Tayla were coming to save us! Obviously, he at least met the dog! But something feels off…I can't put my finger on it, though…"

"What finger on what?" I looked up to see Ivy swing into a chair next to us, a large wad of parchment with her. I told her everything I'd told Neville and by the end, she was frowning.

"No, I can't imagine Dad doing something like that," she said. "If he went near that dog, he'd have to have had a good reason - he wouldn't risk his life just to steal something, unless he absolutely had to."

All the same, my head was buzzing when I went to bed that night and, along with Harry's nerves about tomorrow intruding into my mind, I didn't get to sleep until about eleven o'clock that night. The next morning, I was woken up by Tayla's excited leaping and bouncing around.

"Come on, it's time for Quidditch!" she cried.

"Go and jump off the Astronomy Tower," I muttered darkly, burying my face in the pillow. Hermione giggled sleepily and Lavender and Parvati echoed their agreement but Tayla wasn't to be deterred. Finally, she got bored and left a few minutes later, leaving us other girls to sit up sleepily.

"I don't get all the fuss about Quidditch," Hermione said, brushing her hair.

"I only care because my brother's playing," I said. At that, Lavender dug out some ribbons in various colours and held them up triumphantly, a smile on her face.

"Let's all support Harry!" she said. Her idea of supporting Harry became apparent a few minutes later when she started braiding red and yellow ribbons into Parvati's hair. Grinning widely, I grabbed the box of ribbons, pushed Hermione onto the bed and started braiding Gryffindor-coloured ribbons into her bushy brown hair before she could protest.

Once we were all bedecked with Gryffindor ribbons, we went down to breakfast, where Harry was picking at a measly egg on his plate. Hermione and I started trying to coax him to eat but he resisted us at every turn.

'_Harry! Eat!' _Mum commanded. Harry made a face. _'Don't you make that face at me, young man!'_

Harry rolled his eyes at me and then Seamus said, "C'mon, eat, Harry! Seekers always get clobbered by the other team!"

"Thanks, Seamus," Harry said weakly. I gave Seamus my Glare of Death™ until he started fidgeting nervously. He abruptly slid down the table away from me, muttering about 'scary girls with death glares'.

'_Harry, as James just said, "You'd best eat now, young man, because I won't take any responsibility when you fall off your broom! And I would know!"' _Mum said in such a good imitation of a man's voice that Harry and I couldn't help but giggle quietly.

Suddenly, a memory rose up into the forefront of my mind: a man who looked identical to Harry except for having hazel eyes was reading us a story out of a book, a story about someone called Babbity Rabbity and a cackling tree stump. My eyes shining with unshed tears, I looked at Harry and saw that he had seen it too.

"Can you…?"

"I'll find it," I promised. Harry started eating determinedly, making Hermione beam, and I turned to Ron.

"Hey, Ron? Know any stories about someone called Babbity Rabbity and a tree stump?" I said. Ron looked at me as if I was crazy.

"What? Don't you…?" He shook his head. "I forgot you were raised by Muggles. That's one of our most famous fairy tales, Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump. It's in The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Why?"

"…Never mind," I said with a sad smile. I got up from the table and hurried to the library, where bad-tempered Madam Pince was prowling.

"Why aren't you at breakfast like all the others?" she screeched at me.

"Um…I was just wondering if you had any copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" I said in a small voice. The librarian glared at me and then stalked off, returning a moment later with a small blue and white book. She checked it out and gave it to me. I thanked her and then hurried off to the Great Hall, where breakfast was finishing.

"Harry!" I hissed to my brother, who was about to follow the other Gryffindor Quidditch players. I showed him the book and a wide smile slowly spread across his face. He threw his arms around me tightly.

"You're the best sister ever, Tessie!" he declared. My eyes watered happily but I put on a smirk.

"I know," I said mock-arrogantly. "It's so kind of you to say so. Now, go and win us a Quidditch match!"

"Aye, aye, ma'am!" Harry mock-saluted and hurried after the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch players.

-HP-TP-

Half an hour later, everyone was seated in the stadium and we were waiting for the match to start. I was reading the fairy tale book and though I felt a bit ill at The Warlock's Hairy Heart, I enjoyed everything else.

'_If Mum and Dad were alive, would this have been my favourite book?' _I wondered to Harry, vowing to buy myself a copy next time we were in Diagon Alley. I found The Tale of the Three Brothers particularly interesting as the message in there was that no one could outrun death. Hmm…don't know if that's the sort of thing kids should be reading.

Just then, everyone started cheering and I put the book down to see the two teams fly out, do a lap of the pitch and land next to Madam Hooch. She appeared to tell them something before throwing the Quaffle into the air.

The game was on.

"And Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor takes the Quaffle right away - a brilliant Chaser, she is, and quite attractive as well -"

"JORDAN!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Lee Jordan, Fred and George's best friend, was commentating and so far, he was proving to be an excellent commentator - I was laughing hard and Parvati and Lavender next to me appeared to have come down with the giggles.

"I want him to commentate on the footy at home!" Tayla roared to me, red and yellow stripes painted across her face. "Hey, d'you like our banner? We got Ivy to do all the fancy spellwork!"

She, Hermione, Ivy and Dean had a large banner that said POTTER FOR PRESIDENT with a large Gryffindor lion. I could tell at once that Dean, being the great artist he was, had painted the lion and the words flashed in scarlet and gold - no doubt the work of Ivy, who was looking immensely pleased with herself.

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" Lee shouted suddenly and all the red-and-gold-clad people cheered loudly, while the green and silver people booed and howled.

"Move along, you lot," a gruff voice suddenly said. We looked around to see that it was Hagrid and Ron and Hermione squeezed together to let Hagrid in, forcing Cody to have to jump down a row to sit next to me.

"Bin watchin' the match from me hut but it isn't the same as watchin' here," Hagrid explained. "No Snitch yet?"

"No," I said. "Harry hasn't exactly been an active player yet."

"He's kept out of trouble though," Cody said, squinting. "That has to count for something, right?"

"Hell, yeah," I muttered as Hagrid peered through his binoculars at Harry, who was just gliding around with nothing to do. I entertained him by mentally reading him a story from Beedle the Bard but he still kept his eyes peeled. Honestly, I admired his attention span - I would've gone crazy up there with nothing to do.

I gave a Bludger my Glare of Death™ when it decided to go after him but then Fred belted it away and I hissed, "Yes! Take that, small black ball with a mind of its own!"

…I have issues.

"Slytherin has the Quaffle," Lee said. "Pucey dodges two Bludgers and Bell and shoots towards - wait, was that the Snitch?"

And people say I have a short attention span.

'_Go, go, go!' _I shouted at Harry and he dived after something only he and Terence Higgs, the Slytherin Seeker, could see. Mum was alternating between roaring encouragement in our heads and reprimanding Dad (whose comments I really wished I could hear) and just as Harry was about to catch whatever he could see -

WHAM. I roared in rage, as did all the other Gryffindor supporters. The Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint, had blocked Harry and my brother spun off, clinging to his broom.

"FOUL!" we Gryffindors and Gryffindor supporters shouted. Madam Hooch gave Gryffindor a penalty short but that stupid Snitch had vanished in the confusion.

"Red card! Send him off!" Dean yelled.

"What?" Ron said.

"If you get a red card in football, they kick you out of the game!" Tayla said furiously.

"This is not football!" Ron said.

"I'm perfectly aware of that!" Tayla shrieked.

"They should change the rules," Hagrid said, firmly on Dean's side (as was I). "Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air."

While Lee tried to find a way to express his disgust of Flint's tactic without incurring the wrath of Professor McGonagall for being biased, I had to put up with Tayla and Ron squabbling over Quidditch and football (I think Ron had forgotten that Tayla did know about Quidditch) and Mum screaming abuse about Flint in my head. If this kept up, I was on a one-way trip to an asylum.

…What am I thinking? I'm levitating feathers with a wooden stick and have a dead Mum in my head and only now, I think I'm a nutcase?

Just then, Harry's broom lurched violently. I gasped, hoping it was nothing, but it continued to play up. I grew very mad when the Slytherins scored - why the hell wasn't anyone watching my brother?

"Hagrid!" I screeched, moving Hagrid's binoculars to look at Harry.

"Dunno what he's doin'…" Hagrid said. "Looks like the broom's outta control…but it can' be…"

"Well, it is!" I shrieked. "Someone, do something! _And Mum, shut up!' _I added to the furious and terrified mother in my head.

"_Don't talk to me like that, Tessa Lily Potter!' _Mum yelled back. Harry being jinxed was considerably more important than Mum using my full name and I only just realised that Lavender and I were clinging to each other and Parvati was screaming.

Suddenly, Harry's broom gave a violent jerk and my brother tumbled off, though he managed to hold on with one hand. I was sobbing by now and I vaguely heard Seamus ask about Flint doing something to Harry's broom when he blocked it but Hagrid didn't think that was possible.

"Look!" Hermione moaned, handing me the binoculars. "Look at Snape!"

Peering through the binoculars with wet eyes, I saw that Snape had his eyes fixed on Harry and he was muttering under his breath.

"He's jinxing the broom!" Cody breathed, leaning over to peer through them. "What do we do!"

"Leave it to me," Hermione and I said simultaneously. We slunk out of our seats and fought our way over to the teacher's stand. My scar twinged when we passed Professor Quirrell and I paused, frowning. My eyes widened when I saw him muttering too and then I realised that counter-curses needed eye contact too.

'_But who's the curser?' _I wondered desperately. _'Professor Quirrell or Professor Snape? Better do both, just to make sure…'_

Hermione and I locked eyes and, nodding, we whispered a spell at the same time. Bluebell flames streaked out of Hermione's wand and landed on Snape's robes, while a jet of bright magenta flames flew out of my wand and set Professor Quirrell's robes ablaze.

Before anyone could notice that the professors were on fire, Hermione and I made our escape and I hummed the James Bond theme song under my breath. Hermione heard and, getting the reference, started to giggle.

Our work was done; up in the air, Harry finally managed to climb back onto his broom. Hermione and I made it back to our seats just as Harry landed on all fours and started to cough, his hand over his mouth like he was going to puke. Just as I was growing worried, Harry spat something gold into his hand and waved it in the air, laughing.

"No…" I trailed off and then I started laughing too. "He won! HE WON!"

Indeed, Gryffindor had won - one hundred and seventy to sixty (that bastard, Flint, had scored five times when Harry's broom was being jinxed). But Harry wasn't joining in the celebrations; he was being made a cup of tea at Hagrid's hut with me, Ron, Hermione, Ivy, Tayla and Cody.

"It was Snape," Ron said. "Hermione, Tess and I saw that he wouldn't take his eyes off you."

"Dad wouldn't do that," Ivy said in a hard voice.

"But Professor Quirrell was also muttering…" I frowned. "And my scar hurt when I was next to him…"

"See?" Ivy said smugly. "Dad was using the counter-curse!"

"Why would Snape an' Quirrell do somethin' like that?" Hagrid said.

"Er…we found something out about him," Harry admitted. "The three-headed dog bit him on Halloween when he tried to get past it and steal what it's guarding."

Hagrid dropped the teapot and I sniggered mentally.

"How d'you know 'bout Fluffy?" he said in shock.

"Fluffy?" Tayla spluttered, her eyes streaming - she'd taken a gulp of tea just a Hagrid announced the dog's name and she'd choked on it. Ron pounded her back.

"Yeah, he's mine. Bought him off a Greek man I met in the pub las' year and Dumbledore borrowed him to guard the -"

"Yes?" I said eagerly.

"Shouldn'ta said that," Hagrid said. "That's top secret business."

"But Snape's trying to steal it!" Tayla protested. Ivy set her cup down harder than was necessary.

"Nonsense," Hagrid said. "Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."

"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a jinx when I see one!" Hermione insisted - well, her respect for authority seemed to have changed today. "You have to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking!"

"Yeh're wrong!" Hagrid refuted. "I dunno why Harry's broom acted the way it did but Snape wouldn' murder a student! Yeh're meddlin' in things yeh don' understand so forget about the dog - what it's guarding is between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel -"

"Nicolas Flamel?" Harry said. Hagrid looked absolutely furious.

**Finally, that's finished. I would've had it done and up earlier but I had to leave Mum's friend's place when I was typing the ending because of a brewing argument and that's when I realised - I'm a bloody third wheel. My brother and Mum's friend's son are friends, as are my sister and Mum's friend's daughter, and me? I have no one. Then I put this chapter on my USB and lost that for several weeks, which is why this chapter is being posted weeks after I actually finished it.**


	11. Christmas and My Annoying Brother

**To make up for my horrid update time from last chapter, I'm releasing this one early! It was pretty easy to write, since I just copied half of this from the original Harry and Sophie Christmas chapter and changed things around. And I'm not just talking about the POV. Anyone who's read the original chapter will know what I'm talking about.**

**Oh and from now on, I've decided to leave update dates just so I can see how long I take to update. This chapter was posted 28/6/13 (6/28/13).**

**Thanks to gleegirl23 and Cookie05 for reviewing! **

I had always loved the snow, so when I woke up one December morning and could only see white outside, I was ecstatic. Harry and I had never had a chance to play in it before (as we would have been punished for 'having fun when we didn't deserve to'), so we took every opportunity to go outside. Zora didn't like it, though, and she settled down for her annual hibernation, meaning I wasn't going to get anything out of her for a while.

Fred, George, Tayla and a fourth person got into trouble for enchanting snowballs to follow Professor Quirrell around and bounce off the back of his turban.

Guess who the fourth person was? Yep, me. I swear they've corrupted me! Mum wasn't very happy with me but Dad apparently was, since she spent an hour yelling at him for passing the Marauder gene on, whatever that was.

I was now glad that we didn't have a lot of people to write to because the few owls that managed to survive the journey between Scotland and England had to recover with Hagrid before they left. I think Hedwig was grateful too that she didn't have to fly in that weather.

The Gryffindor common room (and the other common rooms, I assumed) and the Great Hall were warm enough, as they had massive fires, but the rest of the school was absolutely freezing. Potions was the worst, as we weren't allowed to use Heating Charms in case they reacted with a potion. There was no fireplace either, so we had to make do with staying as close to our cauldrons as we could.

"I feel very sorry for anyone who has to stay here for Christmas because their families don't want them," Malfoy said loudly. I studiously ignored him and I saw Harry doing the same.

We knew why he was doing this; he was sore that Gryffindor had beaten Slytherin at Quidditch and had tried to get attention by saying that a wide-mouthed frog would be the next Gryffindor Seeker but everyone ignored him, too impressed by Harry's flying when his broom was jinxed. Malfoy had had to return to teasing us about not having a proper family.

Harry and I weren't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas; after all, it wasn't as if our relatives would be very happy to see us any time before June, when we returned. The Weasleys were staying too because their parents and Ginny were going to Romania to visit their older brother, Charlie. Ivy also had to stay, since her father wasn't going home and there was no way he'd want her staying with 'those idiotic Gryffindors!'

But I wasn't staying at Hogwarts. Over the two weeks of holidays, I would be alternating between staying with Neville and Hermione. Tayla had wanted me to stay with her too but her family wanted a Stevens Christmas, which I understood. Cody's aunt and cousin would be visiting his family over the holidays but they hated magic, which stretched to him (not that they'd liked him in the first place), so he'd had to stay at Hogwarts - that is, until Hermione invited him home too.

"Are you sure you'll have enough room for both of us?" I said to Hermione.

"Of course!" Hermione said happily. My parents are dentists so we're well off. You can just share a room with me or have one of the guest bedrooms and Cody can have the other one!"

"Won't you come, Harry?" I said to Harry but he smiled sadly.

"Neville isn't really my friend as much as he's yours," he said. "I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Just come and stay with me too!" Hermione said. "Tess can room with me and you and Cody can have guest bedrooms!"

"Who would keep Ron company?" Harry said but Hermione was determined that Harry and I wouldn't be separated and that all of her friends would stay together and said that he and Ron could share a room.

"How about it?" she said to Ron.

"Er…I'd have to ask my parents but I don't think they'd mind," he said, his ears red. Hermione beamed and ran to write to her parents, telling them that they would have two more guests.

"Now we don't have to spend Christmas apart!" I said happily, hugging Harry.

"Gran was really happy when I told her that I'd found a good friend," Neville said to me in the common room that night. "I expect she'll be happier when she finds out it's a Potter twin."

"Does it matter?" I frowned, scribbling something on my Charms homework. "Friends are friends."

"You've never met my gran," Neville muttered.

-HP-TP-

After Potions on the day before the holidays, we left the dungeons to find a large tree blocking the corridor. When I saw that it had feet, I thought for a moment that it was a weird, magical species of tree but then I saw that the feet belonged to Hagrid.

"Need any help, Hagrid?" Ron said, sticking his head into the tree.

"Nah thanks," Hagrid said. "I'm right."

"Could you please move?" the dreaded voice of Malfoy's said. "Are you trying to make a few Galleons, Weasley? Or maybe you're hoping to be gamekeeper when you leave Hogwarts - I suppose Hagrid's hut must seem like a manor compared to your house."

Ron extracted himself and lunged at Malfoy but Snape happened to be climbing the stairs - and he didn't look happy.

"WEASLEY!"

Ron let go of Malfoy's robes with a scowl.

"Malfoy provoked him by insultin' his family," Hagrid said.

"That may be the case but fighting is not allowed," Snape said in that oily voice that got on my nerves. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and you should thank me for not taking more off. Now, move, all of you."

"We'll get him one day!" Ron hissed as Malfoy and his cronies pushed past.

"I hate them both," Harry said.

"Seconded," I nodded.

"Cheer up, yeh guys," Hagrid said. "It's nearly Christmas. Come with me an' see the Great Hall - looks beautiful."

Harry, Ron and Tayla were hot on Hagrid's heels, followed by Cody and Hermione, who were in an intense discussion about something or other, and I hung back with Neville, who I had been trying to introduce into our group for over a month now.

"Come on!" I said. "We won't be here for Christmas so let's go look at the hall!"

"I'm not sure," Neville said hesitantly. "You seem to be the only person who ever talks to me now."

"Well, Harry, Ron and Tayla can't have an intelligent conversation if their life depended on it," I said, rolling my eyes. "Cody and Hermione…well, you'll never understand anything they say anyway. Besides, am I really that bad?" I put on a playful pout and Neville shook his head, his face pink.

"You're not bad! You're my best friend!" he said.

"I know, I'm just teasing you," I grinned.

When I saw the Great Hall, I was almost sorry that I wasn't going to be here for the holidays. There were bunches of holly and mistletoe all around the hall and at least twelve giant trees had been erected all around the hall - some had icicles and some had lots of candles.

"How many days until yeh start yer holidays?" Hagrid said.

"Just one," I said in relief. I might like classwork but even I wouldn't say no to two weeks of holidays, though I wasn't sure Hermione and Cody would.

"Oh, yeah!" Cody said in realisation. "We have to be in the library, remember?"

"Yeah, you're right," Ron said, looking away from Professor Flitwick. The diminutive professor was trailing golden bubbles out of his wand onto the branches of the three that Hagrid had just brought.

"How do you do that?" I asked, bouncing over to him. Professor Flitwick beamed and demonstrated the wand movement and incantation.

"Now, try it on the tree!" he squeaked. I pointed my wand at the tree and said the incantation and soon, golden bubbles were streaming out of my wand and covered the tree.

"Oh, well done, Miss Potter! Take five points to Gryffindor!" Professor Flitwick said.

"Can you change the colour of the charm?" I said curiously.

"Of course!" Professor Flitwick taught me all the modifications to produce certain coloured bubbles and soon, the tree and I were covered in rainbow bubbles and I had earned another five points.

"Come on," Harry said from behind me. "We have to get to the library, remember?"

"But I'm having so much fun!" I whined. Rolling his eyes with a grin, Harry dragged me out of the hall and after the others, where Hagrid was just saying, "…right before the holidays?"

"No, we're not doing any homework," Tayla said cheerfully. "We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is."

"You what? No, I told yeh all ter drop it! It's none of yer concern what Fluffy's guardin'."

"But all we want to know is who Nicolas Flamel is," I said. "If you were to tell us and save us all this trouble…"

"We've been through hundreds of books and we can't find him!" Harry continued. "I know I've heard of him, though!"

"I won' tell yeh a thing," Hagrid said stubbornly.

"Well, we'll just have to find him ourselves," Ron said and we left an annoyed-looking Hagrid to go to the library.

"Why exactly are you looking up who Nicolas Flamel is?" Neville said, so I explained about Hagrid's slip.

"You ever heard of him?" I said.

"Maybe…" Neville frowned. "I've heard of hundreds of famous wizards, though…"

'_Mum? Any ideas?' _Harry said.

'_I've been dead for ten years and you expect me to remember some wizard?' _Mum cried, making me snort.

We'd been looking for Nicolas Flamel because there was no way we'd ever guess what the heck was in that package without knowing who Flamel was. But we had no idea of where to begin, since we didn't even know what Flamel had done to become well-known. Ivy could have been a great help but she already had enough homework, so we left her to get it done.

"Well, he's not in _Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century_ or _Notable Magical Names of our Time_," Cody said as we entered the library.

"He wasn't in _Important Modern Magical Discoveries_ either," Hermione added. "And I don't remember seeing him in _A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry_."

"So, we're blind," Tayla concluded. "And the library's so huge that we're not likely to find him in this century." I snorted at that.

Hermione and Cody had made a list of subjects to look in, while Ron and Tayla took the lazier approach by picking books at random. While Neville and I wandered over to the section on famous wizards, Harry drifted off to the Restricted Section but I knew that there was a fat chance of him even getting in there - for starters, you needed a signed permission slip from a teacher. The Restricted Section contained books on powerful Dark Magic and only students in advanced Defence classes got access to them, so what were the chances of a group of first-years getting access?

"You stick out a mile, you know that?" Tayla called to me. Grinning, I realised that I was still covered in rainbow bubbles and I scooped a red one off me and stuck it in Neville's hair, behind his ear. For some reason, he went as red as the bubble and he grinned back at me.

"We'll never find him!" he sighed dramatically.

"You're right," I said with a wink. "The others seem perfectly happy to keep looking but I'm ever so bored!"

"How about we go and find something to do?" Neville suggested, winking back. Giggling, we ran out of the library and eventually, we found ourselves in a spare room, where we had a massive bubble fight (which I ended up winning). Laughing, we just sat together for a while.

"I wonder what that is," Neville said, pointing to something big and covered in a white sheet. Frowning curiously, I pulled the sheet off to reveal a large mirror with the words _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_ carved on the top.

"What does that mean?" Neville blinked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "This can't just be any ordinary mirror, though…" I slowly walked to stand in front of it and when I did, I had to clap a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. The mirror showed a large crowd of people standing around me, people that weren't even in the room!

"What is it?" Neville said worriedly when I whirled around and saw that there was in fact no one else.

"I - there's a whole heap of people in the mirror!" I cried. "They're not even in the room!"

"What do they look like?"

"Well…one's Harry…" Indeed, Harry was standing next to me, beaming. "Then two more people behind us…and then lots of people behind them…" I got a good look at the two people behind us and my eyes widened. The man looked extraordinarily like Harry, except for the eyes, and the woman looked almost exactly like me!

"No way…" I murmured. Were they really our parents? They had to be, from what I remembered of the photos in Mum's box. I stared into the mirror, transfixed, as Mum and Dad beamed and hugged us and Harry grinned happily at me.

"Tess?" I dimly heard Neville say. "Tess!"

'_Tess, it's not real!' _Mum's voice snapped me out of it and I backed away from the mirror.

"That mirror is dangerous," I said shakily. "I saw Harry, and our family…but they're all dead…"

"Why would it show you that?" Neville frowned. Before I could say anything, he had moved in front of the mirror and then he was staring into it hungrily.

"Nev?" I said. "Neville?" Now I knew how he felt - I was a little scared, watching him stare into the mirror as if nothing else was real.

_Stupid Mirror of Erised whatever the hell the other words are, _I thought. _I have to snap Neville out of it!_

'_It's the Mirror of Desire!' _Mum said suddenly. _'Look, read the inscription backwards!'_

Following Mum's advice, I did so and suddenly, everything made sense. Read backwards, the inscription said _I show not your face but your heart's desire_. My heart's desire was for me and Harry to have a family, so that must have been why I saw us surrounded by our parents and family!

"Neville!" I grabbed Neville and pulled him away, breaking the spell. He blinked and turned to me.

"What just happened?" he said slowly, so I told him about what the inscription meant and he paled.

"Let's get out of here," he said. "I don't like that mirror…I never want to leave!"

"I think that's the point," I muttered, levitating the cover back onto it and running out of the room with Neville.

In the common room that night, I told Harry about what had happened and while he was a little upset about not being able to look into it himself, he agreed that the best thing to do was to stay away from the cursed thing. I had a feeling that he wouldn't have been agreeing so readily if he'd looked into it.

"What did you see?" I said softly to Neville but he just shut his eyes and shook his head. I understood completely; what I had seen in the mirror wasn't exactly something I wanted to broadcast to everyone.

"I saw my parents," he murmured, which shocked me; I hadn't expected him to speak. "They were happy and they…they loved me and knew me. And Gran…she was proud of me. And I saw y - someone else."

I caught the slip and my curiosity was burning to know who the other person was but I knew that pushing would not help at all, so I settled for hugging him comfortingly. I also wondered what had happened to his parents and why he lived with his gran but he just shook his head and refused to speak, so I left it alone.

On a more cheerful note, the holidays began the next day and all of us, minus Ivy, made our way out to the horseless coaches that would take us to the train platform.

"I'm quite eager to meet your grandmother," I said to Neville, who laughed.

"She'd be more eager to meet you if she knew who you were and she's jumping for joy that I've actually made a friend," he said.

"You haven't told her who I am?

"If she knew, she'd probably react like everyone else," Hermione said as we hopped into a carriage.

"No, she'd probably just say that I'm not good enough to be your friend," Neville said sadly and I put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"How did you introduce me in your letters?" I asked.

"I just wrote that I had four new friends and that their names were Tess, Tayla, Cody and Hermione," he replied. "I didn't mention your last names."

"Come on, we'll miss the train!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing to the Hogwarts Express. We all got out of the coach and boarded the train, finding an empty compartment.

"Merry Christmas!" Dean said to us as he was passing by.

"Merry Christmas, Dean!" Tayla replied and the rest of us waved. To get into the Christmas spirit (and at request from Neville and Hermione), I decorated the whole compartment with rainbow bubbles, which had become my signature charm.

When the food train came by, Neville bought us all Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, despite our protests.

"Eurgh, jelly!" I said when I ate a red bean. Earning myself weird glances, I elaborated. "I hate jelly, it's disgusting!"

'_I hated jelly too!' _Mum said.

Lots of sweets later, the train pulled into King's Cross Station and we all off with our trunks and pets. Zora was currently not speaking to me on account of being stuffed into my jacket unceremoniously and her hibernation being disturbed and Neville said that she was like me, earning himself a smack.

"I'm not talking to you now," I sniffed and Neville pretended to get sad.

"Bye, Tess!" Harry said as Hermione caught sight of her parents.

"See you in a couple of weeks!" I replied. I gave him a massive hug and he murmured, "Be good!"

"You know I will!" I pouted. Honestly, it was as if no one trusted me!

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Cody soon disappeared with Mr and Mrs Granger.

"Neville!" I heard a woman's voice and turned to see an old lady wearing a green dress, a moth-eaten fox fur and a stuffed vulture hat. She was also carrying a red handbag.

"Hi Gran," he said. Mrs Longbottom looked down at me.

"This must be the Tess you told me about!" she said and I nodded, a little intimidated by the old lady. Damn, I sure hope I'm not like that when I'm older.

…Who am I kidding? Of course I will be!

"Um, yes, I'm Tess."

"What's your last name?" Mrs Longbottom asked. "Neville never did get around to telling me. He can be forgetful sometimes, that boy." Neville flushed light pink.

"No, he didn't forget to tell you," I said irritably. "He just wanted to wait until I was with him." I pushed my hair aside and said, "My last name is Potter."

"A Potter, hmm?" Mrs Longbottom said, shaking my hand warmly. "I would have guessed eventually. You look just like your mother. I knew her well."

"You did?" I said, gazing at Mrs Longbottom in wonder. But how would she know Mum? Just from looking at her, I didn't think they'd ever gone to school together.

"A fine woman she was, and I have a feeling that you'll be just like her." I flushed a deep crimson. That was the best compliment anyone had ever given me!

'_Yeah! You hear that, James? I'm just that awesome!' _Mum crowed, making me roll my eyes.

"Gran, can we go now?" Neville asked.

"Neville already knows what we are to do," Mrs Longbottom told me. "You must hold onto my arm and not let go until instructed otherwise."

Raising my eyebrows at her formal speech, I grasped Mrs Longbottom's arm and Neville held onto the other. She turned on the spot and I choked when I felt my chest being constricted and my head being squashed and pulverised.

"What…was…that?" I gasped, collapsing onto a green lawn. Someone could have warned me!

"Oh, I forgot that Tess hadn't experienced Side-Along Apparition before," Neville said, looking at me guiltily.

"Oh, Neville," his grandmother sighed before walking into the three storey house. I want one!

"It's ok, Neville, it was just the shock," I said kindly to Neville, who was looking down (both physically and emotionally). I followed him into the house and gazed around at it in wonder. I was so buying a house like this when I was an adult!

"Who are they?" I asked, pointing to a picture of a round faced woman who greatly resembled Neville. She was standing next to a man and both of them were beaming out at us. Neville saddened again and I instinctively knew that I had hit a touchy subject.

"Oh, you don't have to answer if you don't want to…"

_Why must I mess everything up all the time?_

"They're my parents," Neville muttered and didn't say anything else. Tactfully, I refrained from breaching the subject further. You hear that, Ron? It's called tact! Say it with me!

"This is the nicest house I've ever been in," I said sincerely when I bumped into Mrs Longbottom, who beamed.

"That's very nice of you, Miss Potter."

"Please, call me Tess," I said. Miss Potter made me sound like I was in trouble for something!

"Very well, Tess. Your belongings are up in the guest room." With that, she went into the kitchen to prepare dinner - well, so I assumed. What else would you do in a kitchen?

…Don't answer that.

I followed Neville up to the guest room and we sat down on the bed.

"So…" he began.

"So…" I mimicked, smirking.

"What do you want to do?"

"Read."

"It's the holidays!" he said.

"Ok, what would you suggest?" I said with a challenging grin, punching his arm.

"Snowball fight?" I smiled evilly and the look on Neville's face suggested that he was beginning to regret having suggested that we have a snowball fight.

Half an hour later, the two of us ran back inside, rosy cheeked. I had seen a whole different side of Neville - way different from the shy, scared boy at Hogwarts. This Neville wasn't afraid to hold back and I rather liked it.

_I wish he'd be like this at school, _I thought. _He's pretty damn cute when he's not being walked over by Malfoy and everyone else. Wait, what am I thinking?_

"Have you been enjoying yourself, Neville?" Mrs Longbottom asked as she set down steaming bowls of soup for dinner.

"Definitely," he said, flashing me a grin. I grinned back.

"Why didn't your brother come here too?" Mrs Longbottom said to me. "I would have loved to meet him."

"Oh, he wanted to stay with his friends at our best friend, Hermione Granger's, house," I explained as I sipped some creamy pumpkin soup. "That's where I'm going after Christmas. And he told me that he'd feel like he was intruding if he was here."

"Which parent does he look like?" Mrs Longbottom questioned. Was I meant to feel like I was being interrogated or was it just me?

"Hagrid said that he looks like our dad but with our mum's eyes," I said, finishing my soup and wishing I had more.

"Ah, the infamous James Potter," Mrs Longbottom said. "I remember meeting him. Such a nice man he was."

I smiled and in my head, I heard Mum choking and spluttering.

'_James Potter, nice? Has someone been bewitching that woman?'_

After dinner, I changed into my nightgown and said goodnight to Neville, then climbed into the bed in the guest room, said goodnight to Harry and fell asleep within minutes.

The rest of my stay with the Longbottoms was really fun. Mrs Longbottom took us Christmas shopping and I had to hide at one point so that Neville wouldn't see what I had bought him.

"Present for me?" he smirked when I emerged from a shop.

"Of course not!" I said mock-snobbishly. "How could you ever assume that you're worthy enough of a present from the mighty Tess Potter?"

"Fine, I just won't give you yours at Christmas." That shut me up real fast.

When we got back to Neville's house, we had another snowball fight and then went inside. A few days later, I was woken up by Neville diving onto my bed.

"Merry Christmas!" he said excitedly.

"You couldn't wait until I _wanted_to wake up?" I said groggily. "In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a morning person."

"Nope!" he said and I poked my tongue out at him. I then spied a large pile of wrapped packages at the foot of my bed. Wait, those were for me?

"Presents?" I said, surprised.

"You mean you've never gotten presents?" Neville said, just as surprised.

"A few," I said cautiously but Neville let it slide. It was Christmas after all!

I picked up a present wrapped in thick brown paper, which said _To Tess, from Hagrid_. I unwrapped it and picked up a miniature, crudely cut guitar (or something like that). I plucked a string, beaming.

My next present was from Ron. I tore the orange paper off to find a book about Quidditch: _Quidditch Teams and their Histories._

Shaking my head and smiling, I grabbed the next present, which was from Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. I read the message: _We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia._

"What did they get you?" Neville asked. I turned the note over and found a fifty pence coin.

"That's the nicest present they've gotten me!" I said, once again surprised. Neville's face darkened but he didn't say anything.

"Oh, who's this from?" I teased, picking up a neatly wrapped present. Neville went light pink and, grinning at him, I unwrapped it. "Curses and Countercurses?" Delighted, I remembered Harry having to be dragged away from that book in Diagon Alley.

"I figured with your brains you'd be able to master them quickly," Neville said. "And…there's something else." He handed me another, smaller present. "I wanted to give it in person because…well, I didn't want it to break before you saw it."

Unwrapping it, I saw that he had gotten me a beautiful gold necklace with an emerald in it. Beaming, I asked Neville to put it on for me and shivered lightly when his fingers brushed my neck.

"Thanks, Neville!" I gave him a quick hug and caused him to blush again. What was up with him? Whenever I touched him, he blushed! Unless…no way…

"I asked Gran to help me pick it out," Neville added quietly, looking down. "I hope you like it, Tess."

'_Merlin, he likes me!'_

'_Someone got a crush?'_

'_Get out of my head, Harry! Damn, why do I always think these things on the Potter broadcast?'_

'_Of course he likes you! Hermione and Tayla have been telling us for at least a month that they're surprised you haven't noticed! And I know you like him back!'_

'_HARRY JAMES POTTER, GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I don't like him back! Not in that way!'_

'_Whatever. Merry Christmas sis!'_

'_Merry Christmas, bro.'_And with that, my brother vanished from inside my head. Looking at Neville, I frowned to myself. Did he really have a crush on me?

_We're only eleven! How can he like me?_

"What was going on?" Neville asked. "Were you talking to Harry?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Thanks so much!" I was now contemplating the possibility of me liking Neville back in a few years.

…Why exactly am I thinking this stuff again?

To distract myself, I picked up a lumpy parcel and unwrapped it. An emerald green knitted jumper fell out, along with a box of home-made chocolates.

"I think these are from Mrs Weasley," I said, laughing as I put on the jumper.

"That jumper matches your eyes," Neville said and blushed again. Ok, maybe he did like me. But until I was at least fourteen, I was _not _having those thoughts. Although, I didn't think I'd mind crushing on Neville…

_Shut up, Lavender me! _I thought. A mental picture of me that looked eerily like Lavender poked her tongue out and then vanished. _Why me? Why am I the crazy one?_

Examining the jumper, I saw that it had a silver S on it and Neville smirked and pointed out that they were Slytherin colours, which earned him a smack.

"That'll teach you to compare me to a Slytherin!" I said with a smirk.

My next present was from Hermione: a large bag of Chocolate Frogs, my favourite sweets, and some Muggle sweets. Tayla had also gotten me some sweets and Cody got me a diary, which I was happy to receive. I had so many thoughts swirling around my head it wasn't funny, although that was probably to be expected with a dead mother and an annoying brother in my mind too.

Gosh, when you put it like that, I really do sound crazy, don't I?

And finally, from Harry, I received a silver charm bracelet. Beaming, I clasped it around my wrist.

'_You like it, Tessie?' _he said. _'There's space for seven charms - one for each of our years at Hogwarts.'_

'_I love it, Harry!' _I thought happily.

That night's Christmas dinner was the best I'd ever had - well, it was the only one I'd ever had. I piled my plate with turkey, potatoes and peas and poured gravy all over them.

"Hungry?" Neville grinned.

"Starving," I replied, chewing some turkey and trying not to dirty my new jumper.

A giant Christmas pudding followed and I managed to claim the holly berries on top before Neville and stuck them behind my ear, where the red berries clashed with my dark red hair. I looked around at the happy faces of Neville's family: his grandmother, his Great-Uncle Algie and Great-Aunt Enid (who he had pointed out), a few more relatives whose names I couldn't remember and, of course, Neville.

_So this is what Harry and I have been missing out on__, _I thought a little sadly.

The next day, it was time for me to go to Hermione's house. As we Apparated there, I was a little sad that I wouldn't see Neville for another week but I was looking forward to seeing the rest of my friends.

"Hi, Tess!" Hermione said excitedly, running up and hugging me. "Did you like my present?"

"I loved it, they were delicious!" I replied as my friend let me go. "Did you like mine?"

"Definitely!" Hermione held up a moving photo in a frame that I had sent her. It was of me, Tayla, Ivy and Hermione, laughing and wrestling each other out of the frame. Ivy looked happier in that picture than I'd ever seen her before.

"I suppose we had better go now," Mrs Longbottom said and Neville clutched her arm.

"See you at Hogwarts, Neville!" I said and hugged my friend. On impulse, when I let go, I quickly kissed his cheek and before he vanished, I saw his face turn a very deep red.

Now bored, I contented myself with throwing a snowball at Hermione's bushy brown head.

"Hey!" she cried. "Oh, you're going to get it!" She threw a snowball at me and we fought until we looked like snow girls. At some point, Harry, Ron and Cody had run out and they got pelted with snowballs too.

"I'm so glad to see you, Tess!" Harry said, hugging me tightly when our snowball fight was over.

"Same here, Harry," I grinned.

The rest of the holidays passed quickly. Harry, Ron, Cody and I had a really fun time with Hermione and Mr and Mrs Granger seemed to approve of their daughter's new friends. They seemed even happier when Cody mentioned that Hermione was a really fun person to be around.

Most people saw Hermione as a bookworm who read all the time and was all about studying but I saw the real Hermione: caring, fun and slightly rebellious.

When did I get so sappy?

On our last night, Hermione pulled out some Every Flavour Beans and Chocolate Frogs, as well as other Muggle sweets, and the five of us had a sweet party.

"Mmm, I love chocolate," I said, relishing the flavour of my Chocolate Frog.

"So do I!" Hermione said, popping a bean into her mouth. "Eww, glue!" I laughed at my friend's misfortune.

"I don't know whether this is jam or marmalade," Harry frowned, tasting a bean.

"Then I'm very worried for you," I said dryly.

Cody, Hermione and I spent the rest of the night reading some books of Hermione's while Ron taught Harry how to play wizard's chess and then we went to bed to get up early the next morning.

"Come on, get up!" Hermione called, shaking me awake from the spare bed in her room.

"What?" I murmured. Did I mention I'm not a morning person?

"We'll be late!" Hermione cried and jumped off to pack her trunk. Grumbling to myself, I dressed and packed too, pulling my red curls up into a messy ponytail. I pulled my green jumper on again, along with some jeans, and followed Hermione into the dining room, where she, Harry, Ron and Cody were having a hasty breakfast.

"Here, eat this!" Hermione said, giving me some toast.

"Thanks," I said, my mouth full. I'm really not a morning person!

At ten thirty, we all piled into the two cars (ha, Uncle Vernon only had one car! Take that!) and set off for King's Cross, arriving with fifteen minutes to spare. Hermione and Cody ran through the barrier together and Harry and I, then Ron and Mr and Mrs Granger followed.

"Bye, Mum, bye, Dad!" Hermione said, hugging her parents and going to find an empty compartment.

"Thanks for having us!" I said happily, shaking Hermione's parents' hands.

"Yeah, thanks," Harry said and Ron and Cody thanked them too.

"It was a pleasure having you all," Mrs Granger said and I beamed, then followed Hermione with Harry, Ron and Cody.

"Hey, Mione," I smiled, sitting down on the opposite seat.

"Hey, Tessie," she replied.

"Ok, you win," I muttered. "For now." Hermione smiled triumphantly and fished out a book to read. Harry and Ron played chess and Cody got a book out too, leaving me to fetch the book that Neville had gotten me for Christmas.

"Tess!" The compartment door opened and I grinned at Neville when he walked in with Tayla, sat down next to me and greeted the others. I saw Hermione smirk knowingly at me and blushed faintly. I didn't like Neville! Although I supposed it was only a matter of time…I did read somewhere that best friends had a good chance of becoming something more…

_And I'm relying on some article I read, why?_

I immensely enjoyed the ride back to Hogwarts and as a treat for everyone, Harry and I bought a large bag of Every Flavour Beans, which we dug into.

"Grape!" Neville said gleefully.

"Yuck, paper!" I said, wrinkling my nose.

"Pineapple!" Hermione said smugly.

"Cherry!" Harry said happily.

"Ice cream!" Cody grinned.

"Chocolate cake!" Tayla cheered.

"Bacon," Ron sighed dreamily.

"Why am I worse off?" I asked, pretending to cry, and I threw my arms around Neville. Sure enough, he blushed.

"Because you hang around the worst people," a drawling voice said.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" I sighed, turning to face the blond boy.

"I just thought I'd say hello," he said.

"Right." I rolled my eyes.

Malfoy looked at Neville sitting next to me and said, "Longbottom, finally got yourself a girlfriend? I must admit, I thought it would take you longer. Potters really don't have any taste, do they?" Neville looked like he was going to cry and I stood up furiously.

"Ok, Malfoy, listen up. One, he is not my boyfriend: just a really good friend. And two, we Potters do have good taste! If we didn't, we'd be friends with the likes of you!"

"You tell him, Tess!" Harry said. Malfoy looked furious and pulled out his wand but I beat him to it, ready to test out some new spells from my book.

"Locomotor mortis!" I shouted and Malfoy's legs snapped together. Giving me a look of pure hatred, he shut the compartment door and hopped away. Hermione was giggling, Cody was snickering and Harry, Ron, Tayla and Neville were lying in their seats, shaking with laughter.

"You are…the best…Tess!" Ron choked out and, grinning, I sat back down next to Neville.

"No one insults my friends and gets away with it," I said. "Or Harry's either, and Harry doesn't have as much self-control as me."

"That's a good thing, right?" Harry smirked.

"Oh, yeah," I nodded, grinning.

We spent the rest of the trip eating, reading, playing chess and talking (me and Neville, though most of that time was just spent sitting together quietly) and I was a little sad as my best Christmas ever drew to a close.

**Yeah, so I introduced the Mirror earlier than it was discovered in canon. So what? You gonna sue me for that? Huh? Huh? Yeah, I thought not!**


End file.
